JONATHAN  DANIELS 


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^d  o 


THE  LIFE 


OF 


JOHN    ERICSSON 


BY 


WILLIAM   CONANT   CHURCH 

Editor  of  the  Armv  and  Navy  Journal 


ILLUSTRATED 


TWO  VOLUMES  IN  ONE 


NEW    YORK 

CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 

igii 


COFTRIGHT,  1890,  BT 

CHARLES  8CRIBNERS  SONS 


PREFACE. 


It  was  the  declared  wish  of  John  Ericsson  that  I 
should  tell  the  story  of  his  life.  The  executors  of  his 
estate,  Messrs.  George  H.  E-obinsou  and  Cornelius  S. 
Bushnell,  have  accordingly  placed  in  my  hands  all  of 
his  letters  and  papers.  His  life-long  friend,  Mr.  John 
O.  Sargent,  has  freely  opened  to  me  the  letters  received 
from  Captain  Ericsson  during  fifty  years  of  intimate 
intercourse  and  has  given  me  the  benefit  of  his  recol- 
lections of  the  great  engineer.  The  associates  of  Cap- 
tain Ericsson  in  his  office  work,  Mr.  Samuel  W.  Taylor 
and  Mr.  Valdemar  F.  Lassoe,  have  also  rendered  me 
valuable  assistance.  To  all  of  these  gentlemen  my 
thanks  are  due.  While  the  task  of  sifting  the  volu- 
minous correspondence  and  collecting  the  necessary 
facts  has  not  been  a  light  one,  it  has  brought  full  com- 
pensation in  the  study  of  a  great  intellect  and  a  gen- 
erous heart. 

w.  c.  c. 


COl^TEKTS  OF  VOLUME  I. 


CHAPTER  I. 

EAKLY  YEARS   IN   SWEDEN. 


PACK 

Birth. — Ancestry. — Parental  Influences. — Youthful  Home. — Early 
Education  and  Associations. — The  Gnome  Prophecy. — First 
Inventions. — The  Gota  Canal 1 


CHAPTER  II. 

EXPERIENCE   IN   THE   SWEDISH   ARMY. 

Autobiographical  Account  of  Ericsson's  Early  Life. — Finds  a  Friend 
in  Count  von  Platen. — Training  on  the  Gota  Canal. — Death  of 
Ericsson's  Father. — Becomes  a  Soldier. — Military  Life  in  Jemt- 
land. — Wonderful  Gymnastic  SkiU  and  Physical  Strength. — 
Promoted  to  a  Lieutenantcy  and  Appointed  Government  Sur- 
veyor.— Birth  of  a  Son. — His  Flame  Engine 14 


CHAPTER  III. 

ERICSSON  IN  ENGLAND. 

Removes  to  London. — His  Promotion  and  Resignation  as  a  Swed- 
ish OflBcer. — Becomes  a  Partner  of  John  Braithwaite. — First 
Use  of  Compressed  Air  and  Artificial  Draught. — His  Novel  Ap- 
plications of  Steam-power. — Invents  Surface  Condensation. — 
Quanels  with  Sir  John  Ross. — Invents  the  Steam  Fire-en- 
gine.— Prejudices  of  the  London  Firemen  against  it 36 


VI  CONTENTS   OF   VOLUME  I. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

OPENING  OF  THE  ERA   OF   LOCOMOTIVE  ENGINEERING. 

PACK 

Aristocratic  Prejudice  against  Railroads. — Stephenson's  Contest 
with  Philistine  England. — The  Liverpool  i  Manchester  Rail- 
road offers  a  Prize. — The  Argument  for  and  against  the  Loco- 
motive Engine. — The  Rainlnll  Trial  of  1829. — Stephenson's 
Rocket  and  Ericsson's  XoreUy. — The  Xotelty  shoots  by  the 
Rocket  like  a  Projectile. — A  Mile  in  Fifty-six  Seconds. — Steam 
Power  Supersedes  Muscle. — Public  Excitement — A  New  Era 
Inaugurated 49 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE  HOT-AIR  ENGINE. 

A  Spendthrift  in  Livention. — Associations  with  William  Laird.  ^ 
The  Caloric  Engine  the  Sensation  of  London. — Faraday's  Lect- 
ure upon  it.  —  Ericsson  Anticipates  Sir  William  Thomson's 
Sounding  Apparatus. — Applies  Steam  to  Canal  Navigation 67 

CHAPTER   VI. 

THE  SCREW   PROPELLER. 

Fortunate  Result  of  the  Rainhill  Contest.  —  Ericsson's  Viking 
Blood. — Studies  in  Naval  Engineering  and  Gunnery. — Rela- 
tions to  Captain  Robert  F.  Stockton. — The  Screw  Propeller. — 
The  First  Steam  Tug. — Early  Experiments  with  the  Screw ....     84 

CHAPTER  VII. 

REMOVAL  TO  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

Adventurous  Voyage  of  the  Stockton  Across  the  Atlantic. — Subse- 
quent History  of  the  First  Screw  Steamer. — Recognition  of 
Ericsson's  Claims  to  the  Screw. — Robert  Fulton's  "War-steamer. 
— Naval  Opix)sition  to  the  Use  of  Steam. — Award  of  a  Gold 
Medal   for  the  Steam   Fire-engine. — Early   Use  of  Propeller 


CONTENTS   OF  VOLUME  I.  VU 

FAOE 

in  American  Waters. — Ericsson's  Personal  Appearance  and 
Habits. — Mrs.  Ericsson  Joins  her  Husband 101 


CHAPTER    YIII. 

THE  SCREW  IN  WAR  VESSELS. 

Screw  Vessel  Ordered  for  the  Navy.— Captain  Stockton  calls  Erics- 
son to  His  Aid. — His  Testimony  to  Ericsson's  Ability. — The 
Direct-acting  Screw  System. — Stockton's  Injustice  to  Erics- 
son.— The  Guns,  "Oregon"  and  "Peacemaker." — Disastrous 
Explosion  of  the  Stockton  Gun.— President  Tyler  Loses  Two 
of  His  Cabinet.  —  Universal  Excitement.  —  Success  of  the 
Princeton.— Other  Naval  Vessels  Eendered  Obsolete.— Erics- 
son's Physical  Strength 117 

CHAPTER  IX. 

STOCKTON'S   TREATMENT    OF    ERICSSON. 

Ericsson  Declines  to  be  Held  Eesponsible  for  the  Princeton  Disas- 
ter.— Anger  of  Stockton. — Payment  for  the  Princeton  Kef  used. 
— Correspondence  with  the  Navy  Department.— Application  to 
Congress.  —  Testimony  of  Dionysius  Lardner  and  Professor 
Mapes.— Legislative  Injustice.— The  Court  of  Claims  Allows 
the  Princeton  Claim. — Congress  still  Kef  uses  to  Pay  it. — Stock- 
ton as  a  Duellist.— Stevens's  Bomb-proof 140 

CHAPTER   X. 

SUCCESSES  AND  FAILURES. 

General  Introduction  of  the  Screw.— Adopted  for  the  British  Navy. 

First  Use  of  Twin  Screws. — Ericsson's  Business  Methods  and 

Finances.— Auxiliary  Steam  Vessels.— Their  Use  During  the 
War  with  Mexico.— The  Massachusetts  General  Scott's  Flag- 
ship.—The  Princeton  Claim  Again.— Failure  of  the  Iron  Witch. 
—Business  Associations  with  R.  B.  Forbes.— Ericsson's  Work 
for  the  Government.— Competitive  Trial  of  Screw-vessels. — 
Rival  Claims  to  the  Invention  of  the  Screw. — Contests  in  the 


Courts. 


155 


VUl  CONTENTS   OF    VOLUME  I. 

CHAPTER  XI. 

THE   ERICSSON    HOT-AIR  SHIP. 

rAOK 

The  Perfection  Engine. — Plans  for  a  War  Vessel. — Ericsson  Em- 
ployed by  the  United  States  Government  During  the  War  with 
Mexico. — Elected  Honorary  Church  Member  and  Becomes  a 
Citizen. — Honors  from  England. — His  Temperance  Principles. 
— Prosperity  and  Adversity 176 

CHAPTER  Xn. 

APPLICATIONS   OF   THE   HOT-AIR   PRINCIPLE. 

Sinking  of  the  Ericsson  in  New  York  Harbor. — It  is  Raised  and 
Takes  the  Seventh  New  York  Regiment  to  Richmond. — Its  Use 
during  the  Civil  War. — Attempts  to  Apply  Hot  Air  on  a  Large 
Scale  Abandoned. — Its  Application  to  Small  Motors. — Specula- 
tions as  to  the  Moral  Results  to  Follow  their  Adoption. — Prince 
Ki'apotkin's  Oi^inion. — Large  Demand  for  the  Caloric  Engine. 
— Its  Advantages  and  Profits 195 

CHAPTER   Xm. 

THE  REGENERATIVE  PRINCIPLE. 

Receipts  for  Patent  Fees. — Rei^ort  on  the  Hot-air  Engine  by  Dr. 
F.  A.  P.  Barnard. — Application  of  the  Regenerative  Principle 
by  Sir  William  Siemens. — Faraday's  Continued  Faith  in  It. — 
Its  AjDplication  to  the  Steam-engine. — Professor  E.  N.  Hors- 
ford's  Investigation  of  the  Caloric  Engine. — Its  Progress  Dur- 
ing Thirty  Years. — Ericsson  Receives  the  Rumford  Prize 200 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

PERSONAL    HISTORY. 

Ericsson's  Associates  and  Friends. — His  Interest  in  European  Pol- 
itics.— He  Meets  with  an  Accident. — Submits  to  a  Surgical 
Operation. — His  Physical  Condition. — His  Acquaintance  with 
Professor  J.  J.  Mapes. — His  Favorite  Authors. — His  Mathe- 
matical and  Linguistic  Acquirements. — His  Relations  with  Mr. 
Delamater.— Per.sonal  Anecdotes. — His  Physical  Vigor. — Hopes 
to  Live  a  Century 220 


CONTENTS   OF   VOLUME   I.  IX 

CHAPTER  XV. 

INCEPTION   OF   THE  MONITOR. 


PAQB 


Ericsson's  Preparation  for  His  Great  Work.— His  Struggles  with  Pro- 
fessional Jealousy.— Dealings  with  the  Navy  Department  Pre- 
vious to  1861.— Presents  Two  Sub-aquatic  Systems  of  Attack  to 
the  Emperor  of  the  French. — History  of  Armored  Vessels.— 
Outbreak  of  the  Civil  War.— Prompt  Action  of  the  Confed- 
erate Authorities.— Ericsson  Offers  His  Services  to  President 
Lincoln.— Is  Called  to  Washington.— Dramatic  Interview  with 
the  Board  on  Armor-Clads. — The  Monitor  Ordered 233 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

BUILDING   THE   FIRST   MONITOR. 

Partnership  with  Messrs.  Bushnell,  Winslow,  and  Griswold.— Inter- 
view with  Thomas  F.  Rowland. — Laying  the  Keel  of  the  Moni- 
toi'. — Building  and  Launching  of  the  Vessel. — Mishaps  by  the 
Way. — Herculean  Labors. — Doubts  and  Criticisms  of  Commo- 
dore Smith.— Payments  for  the  Vessel  Delayed.  —  Cost  and 
Profit ,. 254 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

BATTLE  BETWEEN  THE  MONITOR  AND   MERRIMAC. 

Professional  Ignorance  on  the  Subject  of  Armored  Vessels. — Erics- 
son's Mastery  of  the  Subject. — The  Monitor  Intended  for  Far- 
ragut's  Fleet  before  New  Orleans. — Ordered  to  Washington. — 
Stopped  en  route  at  Fort  Monroe. — Timely  Arrival  and  En- 
counter with  the  Merrimac. — Turns  the  Tide  of  Battle 273 

CHAPTER  XVm. 

THE  SUCCESS   OF  THE  MONITOR. 

Congratulations  and  Applause  Following  the  Success  of  the  Monitor. 
— Delight  of  the  Swedes. — Letter  from  Mrs.  Ericsson.— Erics- 
son's only  Speech. — His  Chagrin  at  the  Drawn  Battle  between 
the  Monitor  and  the  Merrimac. — Exaggerated  Hopes  and  Fears 
on  both  Sides 290 


CONTENTS   OF  VOLUME  IL 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

RESULTS  FOLLOWING  THE  SUCCESS  OF  THE  MONITOR. 

PAOB 

Confidence  of  the  Government  in  Ericsson  and  His  Plans. — Other 
Monitors  Ordered. — Nautical  Doubts. — Yielding  to  Professional 
"  Clamor." — Opinion  of  Admiral  Rodgers. — Double  and  Single 
Turrets. — Bureau  Opposition. — Imperative  Demand  for  Armor- 
clads.  —  Commodore  Smith  still  Criticises.  -  •  Miscoucejitions 
Concerning  Monitors.  — Captain  Fox  Converted.  — Ericsson's 
Report  to  the  Department  of  State. — The  Dictator  and  the  Pu- 
ritan         1 

CHAPTER  XX. 

DISASTROUS  INTERFERENCE  WITH  ERICSSON'S  PLANS. 

Ericsson's  Disinterested  Patriotism. — Pecuniaiy  EmbaiTassments 
Resulting  from  it. — Call  for  Light-draught  Monitors. — The 
Promi:)t  Response. — Unfortunate  Result  of  Interference  with 
Ericsson's  Plans.— Twenty  Millions  "Wasted.— His  Efforts  to 
Prevent  Disaster. — His  Magnanimity. — His  Military  Foresight. 
—Recommends  a  Repeating  Rifle.— A  Plan  for  Flying  Artil- 
lery       19 

CHAPTER   XXI. 

BATTLE  RECORD  OF  THE  MONITORS. 

Evils  of  the  Navy  Bureau  System. — Two  Large  Monitors  Ordered. — 
The  Dictator  and  the  Puritan. — Poverty  of  the  Government. — 
Pecuniary  Embarrassments. — Application  to  Congress  for  Re- 


CONTENTS   OF   VOLUME  II. 

lief.  —  Interference  with  Ericsson's  Work.  —  Handsome  Ac- 
knowledgments of  his  Services. — The  Monitors  under  Fire. — 
Attempts  to  Capture  Charleston. — Dramatic  Episodes  of  War. .     36 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE  MONITOR  VERSUS  THE   BATTLE-SHIP. 

The  Controversy  over  the  Monitor. — Its  Influence  upon  Naval  Con- 
struction.— The  Tests  of  Battle. — The  Port-Stopper  and  Bal- 
anced Rudder. — Ericsson's  Ability  as  a  Writer. — Sailor  Char- 
acteristics.— Opposition  of  Admiral  Du  Pont,  Captain  Percival 
Drayton,  and  others. — Monitors  as  Sea-boats. — Engineering 
Ignorance. — Ericsson's  Sea-lead 54 

CHAPTER  XXIH. 

FOREIGN  RECOGNITION. 

Foreign  Demand  for  Monitors. — The  Miantonomoh  Crosses  the  At- 
lantic.— Her  Behavior  at  Sea. — Correspondence  with  the  British 
Admiralty. — England's  Fleets  again  Made  Obsolete  by  Erics- 
son.— Buskin's  Opinion  of  Ships  of  the  Line. — England's  Mis- 
taken Policy  toward  the  United  States 75 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

ROLE   op   THE    MONITOR. 

Ericsson  Declines  to  be  Paid  for  Monitor  Inventions. — Letters  from 
the  Prince  de  Joinville  and  Admiral  Spencer,  R.  N. — Threat 
of  War  with  Spain  in  1878. — Monitors  again  in  Demand 91 

CHAPTER   XXV. 

RIVALS  AND  IMITATORS. 

The  Monitors  and  the  British  Admiralty.— Money  Wasted  on  the 
British  Navy. — Tragic  Results  of  Cowper  Coles's  Rivalry. — 
Letter  from  Mrs.  Ericsson. — Claimants  for  the  Monitor. — Jonah 
the  First  Submarine  Navigator 104 


CONTENTS   OF   VOLUME   II. 

CHAPTER  XX YL 

SERVICES   TO   SWEDEN    AND    SPAIN. 

PAGE 

The  Defence  of  Sweden. — Letter  to  Secretary  Seward. — The  Swede's 
Lack  of  Ability  as  a  Soldier. — His  High  Qualities. — Monitors 
and  Gunboats  for  Sweden. — Ericsson  Opposed  to  Naval  Attack 
on  Chai-leston,  S.  C. — A  Cavalry  Gun. — InsuiTection  in  Cuba. — 
Ericsson's  Aid  Invoked. — Builds  Thirty  Gunboats  for  Spain. — 
Lit^mational  Difficulties 120 

CHAPTER  XXYH. 

BUILDING  AND   MOUNTING   HEAVY   GUNS. 

Improvements  in  Heavy  Guns. — The  Oregon  and  the  Horsefall 
Guns. — Advanced  Ideas  on  the  Subject  of  Heavy  Ordnance. — 
Eemonstrance  against  the  Guns  of  the  Monitor. — Contract  to 
Build  a  13-inch  Gun. — Its  Trial  by  the  Government. — Ericsson 
Prophesies  Failure  of  England's  Ai-mstrong  Gun. — Gun-car- 
riages.— Victor  Hugo's  Story  of  the  Corvette  Claymore. — Erics- 
son's Compression  Gun-carriage 134; 

CHAPTER  XXYHI. 

THE   ART   OF   WAR   IN   ITS   INFANCY. 

Neutralization  of  the  Ocean  Proposed. — Beneficial  Results  of  the 
Professional  Study  of  "War. — Subaquatic  Attack. — The  Role  of 
the  Heavy-Ai-mored  Vessel  Ended.  —Locomotive  Torpedoes. — 
The  Amphibic  Projectile 1-48 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

ERICSSONS  PLANS   FOR   HARBOR  DEFENCE. 

Naval  Approval  of  the  System  of  Subaquatic  Attack. — Opposition  of 
the  Bureau  of  Ordnance. — Ericsson's  Persistence. — President 
Garfield  and  General  Miles. — No  Coast  Defences  Needed. — 
How  to  Defend  Our  Harbors. — England's  Critical  Position. — 
Unreliability  of  Torpedo-boats.— The  Admiralty  and  the  De- 
stroyer.— Turrets  for  Land  Defence 167 


CONTENTS   OF   VOLUME  11. 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  STEAM  ENGINEERING. 


PAGB 


Improvements  in  Steam  Macliinery. — Clianges  in  Methods. — Erics- 
son and  liis  Critics. — His  Advanced  Ideas. — Difficulties  with 
which  he  Contended. — Competitive  Trials  between  Engines. — 
The  Madmoaska  and  Wampanoag  Controversy. — The  Expansion 
Engine =o 182 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

HONORS  CONFERRED   UPON  ERICSSON. 

False  Eeports  of  Ericsson's  Death. — Invitation  from  the  Crown 
Prince  of  Sweden. — Appointed  Commissioner  to  the  Paris  Ex- 
hibition.— Receives  the  Thanks  of  the  Swedish  Riksdag. — 
Honorary  Degrees  Conferred. — His  Relation  to  His  Profession. 
— Monument  Erected  at  His  Birth-place. — Ericsson's  Opinion 
of  the  American  Congress , 194 

CHAPTER  XXXn. 

ERICSSON'S   SON   AND   BROTHER. 

The  Law  of  Heredity. — Nils  Ericson's  Ability  as  an  Engineer. — 
Con-espondence  between  the  Brothers. — John  Invited  to  Re- 
turn to  Sweden. — Asked  to  Become  Consulting  Engineer  for 
the  Scandinavian  Kingdoms. — His  Financial  Condition.  ^Op- 
position to  His  Brother's  Change  of  Name. — His  Opinion  of 
the  United  States. — John  Ericsson's  Son,  Hjalmar. — His  First 
Letter  to  His  Father. — His  First  Visit  to  Him. — "Wielding  the 
Hammer  of  Thor. — Treatment  of  Medical  Experts. — Death  of 
the  Son. — Ericsson's  English  "Wife. — His  Relations  to  Her 
Family 208 

CHAPTER  XXXHI. 

PUBLIC   AND   PRIVATE  BENEFACTIONS. 

A  Yearly  Income  of  70,000  Crowns. — How  it  was  Expended. — The 
Faithful  Steward. — An  Affectionate  Son. — The  Swedish  Rela- 


CONTENTS   OF  TOLUME  II. 


tives. — Correspondence  with  Them. — Opposition  to  Early  Mar- 
riages.— Generosity  Toward  His  Kinsmen  and  Friends. — Public 
Benefactions. — Desires  to  be  Buried  in  Swedish  Soil. — Jemt- 
land  Memories. — Contributions  for  the  Starving  Swedes. — 
Sympathy  with  Distress  and  Poverty. — The  Blessings  of  the 
Poor. — Attitude  toward  Sturdy  Beggars. — Discourages  Swedish 
Emigration. — Romances  of  Youth. — Nobody's  Advice  Accepted. 
— Recognition  of  Favore  Received. — Treatment  of  Penny-a- 
liners. — An  Example  and  a  Warning 222 


CHAPTER  XXXrV. 

FRIENDSHIPS  AND  CHARACTERISTICS. 

Correspondence  with  Friends. — Answers  to  Letters  Calling  for  Pro- 
fessional Advice  and  Autographs. — His  Biography  by  Adler- 
sparre. — A  Fuller  History  Proposed. — Friendship  with  Ole 
Bull. — His  Love  of  Music. — Intimate  Relations  with  Cornelius 
H.  Delamater. — Ericsson's  Hasty  Temper. — His  Manly  Acknow- 
ledgment of  Fault. — "Warm  Regard  for  Peter  Cooper. — Octoge- 
narian Reminiscences 236 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

RELIGIOUS   BELIEFS. 

Acceptance  of  the  Doctrine  of  a  Creative  Intelligence. — The  Great 
Mechanician. — Omniscience  Accepted,  but  not  Omnipotence. — 
Argument  as  to  a  Future  Existence. — The  Goal  of  Brahma. — 
Aversion  to  Funerals. — The  Sermon  on  the  Mount. — Hatred  of 
Cant. — Disbelief  in  Creeds. — Altruistic  Principles. — Methods 
of  Work 249 


CHAPTER  XXXVL 

THE  SUN  MOTOR. 

Presentation  of  the  Rumford  Medals. — Ericsson  Begins  His  Investi- 
gations into  Solar  Radiation. — His  Theory  as  to  the  Influence 
of  River  Currents. — He  Invents  His  Sun  Motor. — Its  Prospec- 


CONTENTS   OF   VOLUME   II. 


PASS 

tive  Influence  in  Changing  the  Seat  of  Empire.— Applies  the 
Solar  Engine  to  Use  with  Gas.— Profits  of  this  Invention  Exceed 
the  $100,000  Spent  on  Solar  Investigation 260 


CHAPTER  XXXYII. 

SCIENTIFIC  INVESTIGATIONS  AND  INVENTIONS. 

Experimental  Apparatus  for  Solar  Studies.— The  Centennial  Vol- 
ume.— Measurement  of  Solar  Energy. — Controversy  with  Father 
Secchi. — Uncomplimentary  Opinion  of  Tyndall. — Contributions 
to  Scientific  Periodicals. — The  Lunar  Temperature. — Ericsson  a 
Pioneer  in  Solar  Physics 277 

CHAPTER  XXXYin. 

THE  HOME  IN  BEACH  STREET. 

The  Philosophy  of  Generous  Living. — Eemoval  to  St.  John's  Park. 
— Love  of  Flowers. — Description  of  the  Home  at  36  Beach 
Street — Changes  in  the  Neighborhood. — The  Park  Destroyed. 
— Annoyances  and  Eemedies. — Carlyle's  Experience  Eepeated. 
— A  Great  Engineer  as  a  Housekeeper. — Experience  as  a  Kat- 
catcher. — Diary  and  Accounts. — Growing  Eccentricities. — Prej- 
udice against  Modern  Invention. — Human  Inconsistency. — 
Hermit  Life. — Spartan  Habits. — Temperance  Ideas. — Exact 
Methods  of  Living. — Celebrating  Octogenarian  Birthdays. — 
Eecollections  of  Youthful  Days 302 

CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

THE  CLOSE  OF  A  USEFUL  LIFE. 

Eesolution  to  Die  in  the  Harness. — The  Last  Invention.— Death  of 
Cornelius  H.  Delamater. — Its  Effect  upon  Ericsson. — His  End 
Approaches. — Eemarkable  Tenacity  of  Life. — His  Death  upon 
the  Anniversary  of  the  Monitor  and  Merrimac  Contest. — Fun- 
eral Ceremonies. — Sweden  Asks  for  the  Eemains. — Imposing 
Ceremonies  Attending  Their  Transfer. — Two  Nations  Join  in 
Honoring  the  Dead. — His  Estate,  and  Directions  as  to  its 
Disposition. — The  Dream  of  Piranesi. — Finis 320 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIO]S"S. 

VOLUME  I 


PAOX 

John  Ericsson  at  the  Time  he  built  the  Princeton,  1841,    Frontispiece 

John  Ericsson's  BrRTHPLACE  and  Monument 2 

Ericsson's  Home  after  his  Father's  Failure 10 

Headquarters  Gota  Canal  Company 16 

Lieutenant  John  Ericsson,  Jemtland  Field  Chasseurs 26 

Second  Engraving  made  by  Ericsson,  1821,  aged  eighteen 30 

Ericsson  at  the  Age  of  Twenty-one 33 

The  First  Steam  Fire  Engine,  1829 45 

The  Eocket  Locomotive 54 

The  Novelty   Locomotive,  built   by  Ericsson  to  compete  with 
Stephenson's  Rocket,  1829 57 

View  of  the  Novelty  with  a  Train  of  Engine  and  Coaches  in 

1829.     (From  pen-and-ink  drawing  by  C.  B.  Vignoles.) 64 

Hero's  Rotary  Engine 69 

Ericsson's  Caloric  Engine 74 

Mrs.  John  Ericsson Facing  115 

The  Stockton  crossing  the  Atlantio 102 

Steam   Fire   Engine   awarded  a  Prize   ry  the  American  Insti- 
OTOTE,  1840 107 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 

tkam 
The  VANUAiiiA — Pioneeb  Pbopelusr  on  the  Tiakeb Ill 

Enoiktes  of  the  U.  S.  S.  Prinoeton 134 

Engines  and  Paddles  of  H.  M.  S.  AcHTTJigfl IM 

AuxHiiABT  Steam-packet-ship  Massachusetts 165 

Deck  Plan  of  Ericsson's  Wab  Vessel  of  1846 178 

The  Calobio  Ship  Ericsson 197 

Facsimile  of  a  Pencil  Sketch  by  Ericsson,  giving  a  Tbansvebsb 
Section  of  his  Original  Monttob  Plan  with  a  Longitudi- 
nal Section  dbawn  oveb  it 238 

Facsimile  of  Ebicsson's  Obiginal  Pencil  Dbawing  of  his  Moni- 
tor, 1854 239 

The  Original  Monitob 261 

Battle  betw'een  the  Monitor  and  Merrimac:    HAiiPTOx  Roads, 

Va.,  March  9,  1862 Facing  288 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATION'S. 

VOLUME  II. 


John  Ericsson  at  the  Time  he  Built  the  Monitor,  1861 . .  Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Explosive  Apparatus  of  the  Obstruction  Remover.     Plan  and 

Cross-section 50 

Obstruction  Remover  of  Captain  Ericsson 56 

British  and  American  Turreted  Vessels  Contrasted 95 

Development  of  the  Monitor  Idea 97 

Sectional  View  of  a  Monitor  through  Turret  and  Pilot-house.  119 

Section  Showing  the  Friction-gear  Applied  to  the  Princeton, 
1842,  and  to  the  Gun-carriages  of  the  United  States  Iron- 
clad Fleet,   1862-67 143 

Section  Showing  Captain  Scott's  Plagiarism 143 

Section  Showing  Sir  William  Akmstrong's  Plagiarism 143 

Muzzle  View  op  12-inch  Princeton  Gun,  Showing  Friction-geak 
OF  Carriage 145 

Rotary  Gun-carriage  and  Transit  Platform  Applied  to  the 
Spanish  Gunboat  Tornado,  1873 146 

Torpedo  Actuated  by  Compressed  Air  Transmitted  through  a 
Tubular  Cable 158 

Interior  op  the  Destroyer,  Looking  toward  the  Bow 165 

Method  op  Firing  the  Sub-marine  Gun  from  an  Ordinary  Vbs- 
SEL 173 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAOI 

LoNomiDiNAL   Section   of   Destboter,   Showing  Gxtn   and  Pbo- 
JECTELE 175 

Motive  Engine  of  the  Destroyer 177 

Lock  on  Gota  Canal,  TROLiiHATTAN  FaiiLS 209 

The  Giant  and  the  Dwarfs  ;  or,  John  E.  and  the   LittiiE  Ma- 
riners    211 

HjAiiMAR  Elworth,  Son  OF  JoHN  Ericsson 218 

Diagram  Showing  the  Action  op  the  Rivers  in  Carrying  Mat- 
ter toward  the  Equator 263 

SoiiAR  Engine  Operated  by  the  Intervention  of  Steam.      Built 
AT  New  York,  1870 267 

Ericsson's  Sun  Motor,  Erected  at  New  York,  1883 269 

Solar  Engine  Adapted  to  the  use  op  Hot  Air.     Patented  as  a 

Pumping  Engine,  1880 274 

Captain  Ericsson's  Solar  Pyrometer,   Erected  at  IHew   York, 

1884 288 

The  Moon's  Surface  during  the  Lunar  Night,  as  Seen  by  Light 
Reflected  from  the  Earth 300 

Exterior  View  of  Ericsson's  House,  No.  36  Beach  Street,  New 
York,  1890 304 

View  op  the  Room  in  which  Ericsson  Worked  for  Twenxy-five 
Years  314 


THE    LIFE 


OF 


JOHN    ERICSSON 


"L'homme  vertueux  qui  remplit  fid^lement  ses  devoirs  envers 
le  pays  qui  I'a  vu  naitre,  a  dea  droits  a  la  reconnaissance  de  sa 
patrie.  Le  philanthrope  qui  voue  ses  lumieres  et  ses  veilles  au 
bien-etre  de  Thumanite  enticre,  a  droit  de  citoyen  chez  tons  lea 
^uT^lea.''— Charles-Jean  {BemadotteJ ,  King  of  Sweden. 


LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 


CHAPTER  I. 

EARLY  YEARS   IN   SWEDEN. 


Birth. — ^Ancestry. — Parental  Influences. — Youthful  Home. — Early  Ed- 
ucation and  Associations. — The  Gnome  Prophecy. — First  Inven- 
tions.— The  Gota  Canal. 

THE  story  of  the  development  of  special  faculties  under 
favoring  conditions  is  always  interesting,  always  instruc- 
tive ;  and  this  is  the  story  of  John  Ericsson.  In  him  Xature 
and  Opportunity  combined  their  forces  to  produce  the  great 
engineer.  The  good  seed  falling  upon  good  ground  brought 
forth  abundantly. 

He  was  born  at  the  opening  of  this  century  of  mechanical 
achievement,  on  July  31,  1803,  and  was  a  native  of  Yermland, 
a  division  of  Swedisli  territory  nearly  equivalent  in  size  to 
British  Wales  or  the  American  State  of  New  Jersey.  Verm- 
land  is  one  of  the  seven  "  lans "  into  which  Central  Sweden 
is  divided,  and  follows  the  "Ian"  of  Stockholm  in  the  order  of 
importance.  On  its  easterly  boundary  lies  the  mining  district 
of  l^ordmark,  and  here,  at  the  time  of  John's  birth,  resided 
his  father,  Olof  Ericsson,  Inspector  of  Mines  at  Langbanshyt- 
tan. 

Whether  or  not  we  accept  the  theory  that  the  physical  and 
intellectual  vigor  to  which  Greater  Britain  owes  its  glory  is  of 
Scandinavian  origin,  it  is  beyond  question  that  the  Norseland 
has  been,  for  more  than  two  thousand  years,  the  home  of  one 
of  the  most  intelligent  and  energetic  of  peoples;  a  sturdy  race 
which  has  never  yielded  to  a  foreign  conqueror  since  Odin,  with 
his  Scythians  from  the  Black  Sea,  colonized  the  Scandinavian 
peninsula.      No  kingdom  of  equal  extent  occupies  a  higher 


2  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

place  in  modern  history  than  Sweden.  In  territory  slie  is  ex- 
ceeded by  California,  and  is  scarcely  more  than  one-half  the 
size  of  Texas.  In  popnlation  she  is  outnumbered  by  the  States 
of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  and  nearly  equalled  by  the 
single  city  of  London.  Even  when  under  Gustavus  Adolphus 
she  held  chief  place  among  the  great  powers  of  the  world,  her 
people  did  not  exceed  two  millions  and  a  half — a  population 


I 


^  '^■ 


^'W*^/i 


John  Ericsson's  Birthplace  and  Monument. 


less  than  that  of  any  one  of  half  a  dozen  States  of  the  Amer- 
ican Union. 

John  Ericsson  was  a  Swede  of  Swedes.  Explaining  his  xi&e 
of  the  signature  of  "  Thule  "  on  one  occasion,  he  states  that 
"  Ultima  Thule"  was  the  home  of  his  "remote  ancestry  ;  "  not 
a  very  definite  designation,  for  some  locate  Thule  in  Southern 
Norway,  others  in  Iceland  ;  and  Procopius,  the  secretary  of 
Belisarius,  who  described  Scandinavia  thirteen  centuries  ago, 
gave  to  it  the  name  of  "Thule."     The  family  name  suggests 


EARLY   YEARS   IN   SWEDEN.  3 

nothing,  as  Eric  is  simply  the  equivalent  of  the  Italian  Enrico, 
the  Spanish  Enrique,  the  German  Heinrich,  the  English  Henry, 
and  the  French  Henri.  The  sons  of  Eric  have  always  been 
numerous  in  Scandinavia,  and  they  have  been  equally  at  home 
in  the  palaces  of  kings  and  the  huts  of  the  peasantr3\  Gus- 
tavus  Vasa,  before  he  was  crowned,  bore  this  name,  as  the  son 
of  Eric  Johansson,  the  Swedish  senator. 

As  far  back  certainly  as  the  seventeenth  century  John 
Ericsson's  ancestors  were  miners  in  the  district  where  he  was 
born.  Sir  John  Sinclair,*  who  visited  Sweden  shortly  before 
John's  birth,  describes  this  class  of  Swedes  as  tall,  robust,  ac- 
tive, and  good-looking ;  loyal  to  the  death,  brave  beyond  ques- 
tion, and  so  lionest  that  they  could  be  trusted  with  anything. 
Robbery  M-as  almost  unknown  among  them.  They  were  civil, 
obedient,  contented,  and  ardent  lovers  of  their  country  ;  posses- 
sing, in  short,  the  characteristics  of  those  who  have  cultivated 
for  generations  unnumbered  the  virtues  of  a  free  people. 

The  first  of  this  Ericsson  family  of  whom  we  have  any  ac- 
count was  Magims  Stadig,  a  miner,  who  died  in  1739.  Magnus 
had  a  son  Eric,  born  in  1724.  He  died  in  1755,  leaving  a  son 
Xils,  born  in  1747.  Nils  Ericsson  advanced  the  family  one 
step  beyond  their  ancestral  employment  as  laborers  in  the  Xord- 
mark  mines.  He  was  a  mining  proprietor  and  accumulated 
some  property.  This  property  was  transmitted  to  his  son  Olof, 
the  father  of  John,  but  Olof's  inability  to  keep  it  returned  the 
family  to  its  original  condition  of  poverty ;  so  that  among  John's 
earliest  recollections  was  that  of  the  appearance  of  the  sheriff 
selling  the  family  furniture  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  importu- 
nate creditors. 

A  better  inheritance  than  ancestral  wealth  was  the  educa- 
tion Olof  received.  To  it  were  due  the  early  influences  that 
shaped  the  career  of  his  sons.  He  was  a  graduate  of  the  gym- 
nasium, or  college,  of  Karlstad,  the  principal  town  of  Vermland. 
As  Latin  and  Ilebi-ew  were  part  of  the  compulsory  course, 
Olof  was  well  educated,  after  the  standards  of  his  time.  He 
was  a  clever  mathematician  and  possessed  an  excellent  mechan- 
ical judgment.     He  does  not  appear  to  have  been  a  man  of  very 

*  Correspondence  of  the  Right  Hon.  Sir  John  Sinclair,  Bart.,  with  Rem- 
iniscences of  Distinguished  Characters.     Two  vols.     London,  1831. 


4  LIFE   OF   JOHN    ERICSSON. 

vigorous  personality,  nor  did  he  inherit  a  strong  constitution,  if 
we  may  judge  from  the  record  that  he  died  at  the  age  of  forty, 
his  father  at  forty-three,  and  his  grandfather  at  tliirty-one. 
Olof  Ericsson  is  described  as  having  been  a  man  notable  for  liis 
good  looks,  his  amiability  of  disposition,  and  his  devotion  as  a 
father.  In  1799  he  married  Brita  Sophia  Yngstrcim,  of  the 
same  age  as  himself,  twenty-one.  Her  family  was  of  Flemish 
origin,  and  the  marriage  of  her  grandfather  with  a  woman  of 
Scottish  descent  introduced  a  strain  of  Caledonian  blood  into 
the  veins  of  John. 

Sir  John  Sinclair  *  reported  a  century  ago  that  more  than 
sixty  of  the  noblest  and  most  powerful  families  in  Sweden 
were  of  Scotch  extraction  and  proud  of  their  origin.  The 
Caledonian  Swedes  are  descended  from  officers  of  the  Scottish 
regiments  who  served  with  great  distinction  under  Gustavus 
Adolphus  in  his  German  war  and  afterward  settled  in  Swe- 
den. Tradition  does  not  tell  us  to  what  family  of  Scotch 
Swedes  John  Ericsson's  great  grandmother  belonged,  but  the 
strains  of  blood  that  came  to  liim  through  his  mother  must 
have  been  strong  and  rich  in  quality.  Her  family  was  origi- 
nally named  Horn,  her  father,  John  Ericsson's  grandfather,  hav- 
ing been  compelled,  while  serving  in  his  youth  in  the  Swedish 
army,  to  change  his  name,  to  satisfy  the  susceptibilities  of  his 
commanding  officer,  a  Count  Horn  of  the  illustrious  Flemish 
line  of  that  name.  Jan  Horn,  or  Yngstrom,  seems  to  have 
been  a  man  of  a  sturdy  nature,  for  he  refused  to  accept  from 
Count  Horn  the  money  offered  him  in  compensation  for  his  pat- 
ronymic. He  would  change  his  name  he  said,  but  would  not 
be  paid  for  doing  so.  Two  generations  later,  his  descendant, 
John  Ericsson's  brother  Nils,  was  created  a  baron,  and  had  the 
satisfaction  of  hanging  his  escutcheon  in  company  with  that 
of  the  proud  Horns  on  the  walls  of  the  Swedish  House  of 
Knights. 

H  to  his  father  he  was  indebted  for  his  mechanical  bent,  it 
was  from  his  mother,  apparently,  that  John  Ericsson  derived 
some  of  his  most  distinguishing  characteristics.  She  came  of  a 
longer-lived  race,  and  lived  to  be  seventy-five.    She  is  described 

*  Correspondence  of  the  Right  Hon.  Sir  John  Sinclair,  Bart.,  with  Rem- 
iniscences of  Distinguished  Characters.     Two  vols.     London,  1831. 


EARLY   YEARS   IN   SWEDEN.  5 

by  a  relative  as  a  "  warm-hearted,  intellectual,  high-spirited 
woman  of  great  firmness  of  character,  a  cheerful  disposition,  and 
active  habits  ;  very  handsome,  tall  and  slender  in  figure,  with 
magnificent  light  blue  eyes  that  deepened  in  color,  sparkling 
and  flashing  most  brilliantly,  when  she  was  animated.  Love  of 
reading  is  a  Swedish  characteristic,  and  Sophie  Ericsson  studied 
ardently  works  of  a  philosophical,  social,  religious,  and  polit- 
ical character.  She  was  fond  of  fiction  and  poetry  as  well, 
and  if  we  are  to  judge  by  a  little  library  she  left,  Walter  Scott 
was  among  her  favorite  authors." 

The  family  of  Mrs.  Ericsson  had  been  mining  proprietors 
and  landowners  in  Yermland  for  sevei-al  generations.  "  The 
bounty  of  God,"  said  Duke  Charles  of  Sweden  three  centuries 
ago,  "has  replenished  the  mountains  of  Yermland  with  all 
sorts  of  ores."  The  mining  district  where  the  Ericssons  and 
Yngstroms  had  so  long  lived  has  yielded  its  treasures  for  more 
than  five  hundred  years,  and  during  that  time  has  developed  a 
people  of  a  striking  individuality.  The  Yermlander  is  a  moun- 
taineer, and  he  exhibits  in  marked  degree  the  sturdy  inde- 
pendence and  passionate  local  attachment  distinguishing  the 
highlauder.  He  is  moreover  by  nature  cheerful,  intelligent, 
industrious,  persevering,  frank,  and  hospitable. 

A^ermland  lies  among  the  chief  watercourses  and  lakes  of 
Sweden,  within  six  degrees  of  the  arctic  circle,  two  degrees 
north  of  Sitka,  Alaska,  and  in  the  latitude  of  southernmost 
Greenland.  It  is  on  the  borders  of  Xorway,  on  the  direct  line 
of  travel  between  Stockholm  and  Christiania.  Duringr  the  Mid- 
die  Ages  it  M'as  the  home  of  Swedish  Eobin  Hoods,  who  levied 
toll  upon  the  caravans  carrying  tribute  to  the  Norwegian  King 
from  the  subject  province  of  Sweden,  and  it  was  long  a  debata- 
ble ground  between  the  two  Scandinavian  kingdoms.  In  Erics- 
son's youth  dense  forests  still  covered  portions  of  its  territory, 
and  in  their  hidden  depths  were  to  be  found  forgotten  villages, 
depopulated  by  the  "black  death"  of  the  fourteenth  century. 

Yermland  is  a  region  of  legend,  song,  and  romance,  and 
here  the  old  Xorse  spirit  has  been  least  influenced  by  modern 
change.  It  was  the  birthplace  of  Geijer,  the  historian  and  poet 
of  Sweden.  In  its  imposing  scenery  and  primitive  Scandi- 
navian spirit  he  found  inspiration  for  those  Swedish  folksongs 


6  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

which  were  so  powerfully  influencing  national  sentiment  at 
the  time  John  Ericsson's  mind  was  receiving  its  strongest 
impressions.  Here  too  was  born  Esias  Tegner,  the  author  of 
"  Frithiof  Saga,*'  and  chief  of  those  to  whom  Sweden  owes  the 
Gothic  revival  that  marked  the  opening  of  the  present  century. 
It  was  in  A^'ermland  forests  that  Almquist  sought  in  1823  to 
establish  a  colony  which  was  to  return  to  the  old  Norse  princi- 
ple of  natural  living,  and  to  the  old  l^orse  paganism  likewise. 
To  be  a  Vermlander,  in  short,  is  to  be  a  Swede  of  the  inten- 
sest  and  most  distinctive  type. 

In  its  natural  features  Vermland  is  a  confusion  of  moun- 
tains, streams,  and  lakes.  Across  it  extend  spurs  from  a  range 
of  snow-clad  hills  whose  northern  limit  is  within  the  arctic 
circle.  These  mountains  are  the  spine  of  the  Scandinavian 
peninsula,  and  the  dividing  line  between  Sweden  and  Norway. 
From  their  eastern  slopes  flow  across  Swedish  territory  the 
streams  emptying  into  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia,  and  from  the  west 
come  the  rivers  whose  waters  pour  into  the  Atlantic  through 
the  Norwegian  fiords  whence  Harold  the  Fairhaired  and  Rolf 
the  Ganger  set  forth  a  thousand  years  ago  upon  those  con- 
quests "  momentous  at  this  day,  not  to  England  alone,  but  to  all 
speakers  of  the  English  tongue,  now  spread  from  side  to  side 
of  the  world  in  a  wonderful  degree." 

Through  the  narrow  rifts  or  valleys  separating  the  mountahi 
ridges  of  Yermland  flow  southward  numerous  swift  streams,  of 
which  the  river  Klar  is  chief.  These  streams  empty  at  the 
south  into  Lake  Yenern,  the  boundary  of  the  district,  and 
chief  of  European  lakes,  Lake  Ladoga  in  Russia  alone  ex- 
cepted. East  of  Elfdale,  as  the  central  valley  of  the  Klar  is 
called,  rise  numerous  hills,  none  exceeding  twelve  or  thirteen 
hundred  feet  in  height.  Here  are  found  those  ores  of  iron 
famed  the  world  over,  from  which  is  wrought  the  steel  used  in 
the  best  cutlery.  The  soil  in  Yermland  is  scanty  and  yields 
meagre  returns,  though  the  Yermland  plough  is  famous  through- 
out Sweden. 

The  scenes  and  circumstances  of  John  Ericsson's  early  life 
in  this  glorious  mountain  region,  and  among  these  primitive 
people,  were  sure  to  powerfully  influence  a  nature  so  intense  as 
his.     After  he  left  Sweden  his  affections  seem  never  to  have 


EARLY   YEAES   IN   SWEDEN.  7 

rooted  themselves  elsewhere,  and  he  turned  toward  the  home 
of  his  youth  with  always  ardent  devotion.  "  I  am  so  entirely 
Swedish,"  he  wrote  in  the  midst  of  his  triumphs,  "  that  I  can- 
not bear  the  thought  that  I  am  believed  to  have  forgotten,  or 
set  aside  in  preference  for  some  other,  our  beautiful  mother 
tongue,  '  the  language  of  glory  and  heroes ! '  " 

Belief  in  the  utterance  of  Yolvas  or  Sibyls  is  one  of  the  an- 
cient superstitions  of  Scandinavia.  So  the  ancient  Swede  who 
announced  to  the  family  of  the  Yngstroms  that  there  should  be 
born  to  them  two  sons  who  would  be  famous  the  world  over 
found  sufficient  credence  to  secure  a  place  in  the  family  annals. 

In  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  when  Brita  So- 
phia's father  M-as  a  young  man,  he  had  in  his  service  a  poor 
cripple,  who,  during  the  summer,  drove  his  cattle  into  the 
depths  of  the  forest  in  search  of  pasture.  In  a  measure  his  de- 
formity shut  "  lame  Eric  "  out  from  his  kind,  and  he  was  more 
at  home  with  the  birds  and  the  brooks,  his  friendly  herds  and 
the  wild  animals  who  had  grown  accustomed  to  his  harmless 
presence.  Alone  with  them  and  his  own  meditations  he  had 
abundant  opportunity  to  cultivate  the  spirits  of  the  wood  and 
had  unquestioning  faith  in  their  existence.  On  one  occasion 
Eric  failed  of  his  customary  weekly  visit  to  Langbanshyttan, 
and  when  search  was  made  he  was  found  lying  sick  in  a  lonely 
barn.  "With  illness  added  to  his  solitude,  strange  fancies  had 
come  to  him,  and  he  reported  the  visit  of  a  friendly  gnome 
who  brought  report  that  a  house  was  soon  to  be  built  at  a  cer- 
tain point  on  the  Yngstrom  property,  and  that  there  should  be 
born  two  boys  "whose  names  would  be  known  the  world  over." 

This  story  became  a  tradition  in  the  Yngstrom  family,  and 
when  Brita  Sophia  went  to  housekeeping  with  her  young  hus- 
band in  a  little  one-story  cottage  with  a  turfed  roof,  inherited 
from  her  father,  and  standing  on  the  very  spot  the  gnome  had 
indicated,  she  was  sufficiently  impressed  with  the  prophecy  to 
remember  it  when  the  time  for  its  application  came. 

After  her  marriage  to  Olof  Ericsson  in  1799  she  bore  to 
him  three  children,  Caroline  in  1800,  Xils  in  1802,  and  John 
in  1803.  The  young  husband  was  part  owner  of  a  mine  and 
also  superintendent  of  the  works  at  Langbanshyttan,  a  region 
noted  for  the  beauty  of  its  scenery.     Mountains  covered  with 


8  LIFE  OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

fir  enclosed  narrow  valleys  where  lay  hidden  tiny  lakes,  their 
shores  bordered  by  leafy  woods,  showing  here  and  there  among 
the  clearings  clusters  of  cottages,  the  homes  of  an  industrious 
people ;  prosperous  and  contented  after  their  fashion,  for  Swed- 
ish country  life  was  at  that  time  of  the  most  frugal  sort. 

Shut  out  froui  the  great  world  by  the  inaccessibility  of  their 
position,  they  were  a  primitive  folk,  simple  in  their  habits  and 
wholly  removed  from  the  French  influences  and  ideas  control- 
ling at  the  capital ;  for  France  and  Sweden  were  at  this  period 
united  by  a  common  dislike  of  Russia,  and  every  effort  was 
made  by  the  French  to  maintain  intimate  relations  with  their 
ally.  So  powerful  was  the  influence  of  the  French  in  Sweden 
toward  the  end  of  tlie  last  century  and  the  beginning  of  this, 
that  they  were  accustomed  to  say  that  they  kept  the  Swedes, 
as  they  kept  the  Turks,  "  like  wild  beasts  in  their  dens,  to  be 
let  loose  for  fighting  whenever  they  desired." 

The  Ericsson  family  would  have  commanded  attention  any- 
where. The  daughter  was  a  child  of  unusual  beauty  and  the 
boys  were  handsome,  intelligent,  and  spirited.  John  was  the 
wonder  of  the  neighborhood.  From  the  very  first  he  exhibited 
the  qualities  distinguishing  him  in  later  life.  lie  was  ceaseless 
in  his  industry  ;  busied  from  morning  to  night  drawing,  plan- 
ning, and  constructing.  The  machinery  at  the  mines  was  to 
him  an  endless  source  of  wonder  and  delight.  In  the  early 
morning  he  hastened  to  the  works,  carrying  with  him  a  draw- 
ing-pencil, bits  of  paper,  pieces  of  wood,  and  his  few  rude  tools. 
There  he  would  remain  the  day  through,  seeking  to  discover 
the  principles  of  motion  in  the  machines,  and  striving  to  copy 
their  forms. 

"When  it  came  to  learning  his  letters,  the  precocious  John 
had  opinions  of  his  own  as  to  how  they  should  be  formed.  He 
quickly  perceived  that  the  characters  set  before  him  were  sym- 
bols, and  he  was  discovered  one  day  on  the  shore  of  the  little 
lake  "  Ilytt,"  bordering  the  homestead,  drawing  in  the  sand 
characters  that  suited  his  fancy  better  than  those  of  the  Swed- 
ish alphabet.  There  was  born  with  this  sturdy  spirit  an  unoon- 
querable  disposition  to  rebel  against  routine.  Usually  the  boy 
was  too  much  occupied  with  his  studying  and  contriving  to 
join   in  the  jmstimes  of  other  children.    When  the  family  left 


■    EARLY   YEARS   IN   SWEDEN.  9 

home,  on  some  one  of  those  excursions  that  furnish  the  mild  ex- 
citements of  rural  life,  he  would  rim  down  to  open  the  srate  for 
them  and  then  return  to  his  drawing-board  and  his  work-box, 
delighted  to  find  himself  alone  and  free  to  follow  his  own  de- 
vices. Among  his  treasures  was  found  a  collection  of  drawings 
— circles,  lines,  squares,  and  curves  in  great  variety  ;  not  the 
meaningless  pencillings  of  a  child  at  play,  but  complete  me- 
chanical sketches  representing  the  machinery  of  the  mines  and 
saw-mills  of  the  district. 

The  elder  brother,  Nils,  was  more  fond  of  pleasure,  but  his 
subsequent  career  as  an  engineer  shows  also  the  influence  of 
early  training,  for  Olof  Ericsson  sought  in  every  way  to  en- 
courage the  mechanical  occupations  of  his  sons ;  and  John  re- 
membered his  father  with  special  affection  as  the  one  who 
had  first  stimulated  into  activity  the  faculties  in  whose  exer- 
cise he  was  to  find  the  joy  of  his  life. 

Olof  Ericsson  made  no  name  for  himself,  but  the  world  owes 
him  honor  for  what  he  did  for  his  children.  The  Chinese  en- 
noble the  ancestors  and  not  the  descendants  of  those  who  do  the 
state  service,  and  the  custom  has  its  foundation  in  reason  ;  great 
men,  good  men,  useful  men  are  the  product  of  the  high  thought 
and  noble  aspiration,  the  useful  labors,  and  the  self-discipline 
of  their  ancestors.  In  the  curious  kaleidoscopic  changes  of 
character  produced  by  the  admixture  of  bloods,  almost  every 
pattern  may  appear,  but  none  the  material  for  which  could  not 
be  found  in  ancestral  inheritance. 

The  years  from  1811  to  1814  were  trying  ones  for  the 
Swedes ;  the  war  with  Russia,  depriving  them  of  Finland,  was 
in  progress,  and  the  freaks  of  the  insane  Gustavus  lY.  kept  the 
little  kingdom  in  constant  turmoil.  Business  did  not  thrive ; 
many  were  ruined,  and  among  them  Olof  Ericsson.  The  happy 
life  at  Langsbanshyttan  was  ended,  the  home  there  broken  up, 
and  the  Ericsson  family  were  for  the  first  time  brought  face  to 
face  with  the  rude  realities  of  life.  The  father  had  been  edu- 
cated for  prosperity ;  he  was  a  man  of  sensitive  and  refined 
rather  than  of  robust  nature  ;  his  son  tells  us  that  "  he  could  not 
bear  the  smell  of  a  peasant,"  and  to  a  peasant's  condition  he  had 
now  come.  The  blow  was  a  cruel  one,  and  Olof  Ericsson  would 
have  sunk  under  it  had  he  not  been  sustained  by  the  courage 


10 


LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 


and  vigor  of  liis  wife.  A  hard  winter  followed  and  the  misery 
of  the  distressed  family  was  great.  But  the  old  life  was  ended 
that  a  new  and  better  one  might  open  before  them,  and  their 
opportunity  soon  came,  as  the  hopeful  mother  had  insisted  that 
it  would. 

The  project  of  the  Gota  Canal,  with  which  the  fortunes  of 
the  Ericssons  were  to  be  identilied,  was  revived  at  this  time. 


Ericsson's  Home  after  his  Father's  Failure. 


Olof  Ericsson  secured  the  position  of  engineer  or  foreman  in 
charge  of  a  gang  of  men  engaged  in  blasting  rock  on  the  line 
of  the  canal,  his  station  being  at  Forsvik,  near  Lake  Vettern, 
one  hundred  miles  from  his  old  liome  among  the  mountains  of 
Yermland.  The  purpose  of  this  canal  was  to  establish  ship 
navigation  across  the  Swedish  peninsula  by  a  series  of  short 


EAKLY   TEAKS   IN   SWEDEN".  11 

canals  connecting  a  chain  of  navigable  waters  stretching  across 
the  country,  and  improving  the  navigation  of  the  Gota  River, 
which  carries  the  waters  of  Lake  Venern  into  the  Xorth  Sea. 
The  first  suggestion  of  this  improvement  is  traced  to  a  Swed- 
ish bishop,  Brock,  wlio  proposed  it  in  1526,  during  the  reign 
of  King  Gustavus  Yasa.  For  nearly  two  hundred  years  the 
proposition  slumbered,  until,  in  1716,  the  attention  of  Emanuel 
Swedenborg  was  called  to  it  by  his  brother-in-law,  Eric  Benze- 
lius,  at  that  time  librarian  of  Upsala,  afterward  archbishop,  and 
always  a  tireless  delver  after  forgotten  facts. 

Swedenborg,  whose  scientific  and  engineering  reputation 
has  been  discredited  by  his  later  claims  to  seership,  was  then  in 
the  service  of  Charles  XII.  as  "Assessor  Extraordinary  of  the 
College  of  Mines."  To  the  King  he  went,  full  of  the  plan 
thus  suggested  to  him.  His  proposal  that  the  project  of  the 
time  of  the  Great  Gustavus  should  be  revived  was  received  with 
eagerness  by  Charles,  for  the  possession  by  Denmark  of  the 
"  Sound  "  had  closed  the  natural  exit  for  Swedish  vessels  from 
the  Baltic.  During  the  succeeding  year  Swedenborg  was  sur- 
veying the  route  for  the  canal,  and  in  February,  1718,  he  was 
ordered  to  undertake  the  work  at  the  King's  expense.  The 
death  of  Charles,  on  December  11,  1718,  put  an  end  to  the 
project  for  a  time. 

Swedenborg  declared  that  the  Gota  Canal  "  would  have 
been  the  wonder  of  the  world  if  it  had  been  completed,"  and 
a  recent  traveller  tells  us  that  having  been  completed  it  justly 
ranks  as  one  of  the  engineering  triumphs  of  the  age.  From 
the  sea  level  to  the  summit  is  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet,  and  yet 
vessels  of  large  size  have  no  trouble  in  ascending  or  descending. 
"  It  is  curious  to  see  steamships  half  way  up  a  hill,  as  helpless 
as  turtles  turned  on  their  backs.  To  stand  on  the  deck  and  se- 
renely contemplate  the  watery  steps  before  you,  or  shuddering- 
]y  look  at  tlie  slippery  staircase  behind,  is  very  novel  and  well 
worth  a  trial.  All  this  happens  at  Akersvass,  where  tliere  are 
eleven  locks  now  in  use,  and  several  others  half  ruined — the 
remnants  of  philosopher  Swedenborg's  plans."* 

In  Swedenborg's  time  the  canal  does  not  appear  to  have  pro- 

*  Aalesund  to  Tetuan,   a  Journev.     Bj  Charles  R.  Corning.      Cupples  & 
Hurd. 


12  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

greased  farther  than  the  partial  completion  of  an  enormous 
sluice,  sixty  feet  deep.  Kemains  of  this  are  still  shown.  This 
sluice  and  two  others  were  completed  by  Yiinaii,  whose  work 
succeeded  that  of  Swedenborg,  or  rather  of  Polheim,  Coun- 
cillor of  Commerce,  and  Swedenborg's  superior  officer  in  the 
direction  of  this  iindertaking.  In  1755  the  malicious  discharge 
of  an  enormous  quantity  of  timber  over  the  Trolhetta  Falls  de- 
stroyed the  locks  and  the  labor  thus  far  expended  was  lost. 

For  more  than  half  a  century  the  canal  waited  upon  fate 
until  it  was  once  more  taken  in  hand,  this  time  by  Count  von 
Platen.  Meanwhile  the  science  of  canal  building  had  made 
great  progress  in  Holland  and  England.  Thomas  Telford, 
chief  of  canal  builders  at  that  day,  had  completed  the  Elsmere 
Canal,  joining  the  Mersey  to  the  Dee  and  the  Severn,  and  was 
busied  with  the  grander  project  of  the  Caledonian  Canal,  open- 
ing a  water-way  across  the  highlands  of  Scotland  from  the  At- 
lantic to  the  !Xorth  Sea.  In  ISOS  Telford  was  invited  to  Swe- 
den by  Count  Platen  and  made  a  careful  survey  for  the  Gota 
Canal,  which  presented  precisely  the  same  difficulties  as  those 
he  was  contending  with  in  Scotland. 

After  working  for  two  months,  with  a  corps  of  assistants, 
Telford  sent  to  Platen  an  elaborate  report  with  detailed  plans 
and  sectional  drawings.  These  were  accepted  and  excavation 
began.  In  ISIO  Telford  again  visited  Sweden  to  inspect  the 
work,  leaving  this  time  drawings  for  the  locks  and  bridges. 
The  relations  of  England  to  Sweden  were  so  friendly  that  he 
was  permitted  to  furnish  the  Swedish  contractors  with  patterns 
of  the  tools  he  used  in  canal  making  and  to  provide  them  with 
experienced  lock-makers  and  navvies  from  England  for  the  pur- 
pose of  instructing  the  native  workmen. 

Thus  were  the  latest  results  of  English  engineering  experi- 
ence carried  into  the  wilds  of  Sweden,  and  brought  to  the  very 
door  of  the  Ericssons,  where  the  busy  brain  of  the  boy  John  was 
already  occupied  with  the  study  of  such  mechanical  contri- 
vances and  enfjineerinfj  undertakinfrs  as  were  within  his  reach. 

A  new  career  was  opening  to  Sweden.  Internal  dissensions 
were  ended  by  a  grant  of  the  constitution  now  in  force,  the 
termination  of  the  royal  line  by  the  abdication  of  the  insane 
King  Gustavus  IV.,  in  1800,  and  the  death  of  his  uncle  and 


EARLY   YEARS    IN   SWEDEN".  13 

successor,  Charles  XIII.,  in  the  year  following.  A  vigorous 
soldier,  Bernadotte,  a  Marshal  of  Napoleon,  had  assumed  au- 
thority over  Sweden  as  elected  Crown  Prince.  The  enterprise, 
originated  in  the  time  of  the  first  of  the  great  soldiers  controll- 
ing Scandinavia,  Gustavus  I.,  and  commenced  by  that  other 
great  military  sovereign,  Charles  XIL,  appealed  at  once  to  the 
instinct  of  Bernadotte.  Its  nature  was  military  no  less  than 
commercial,  for  it  was  essential  to  the  defence  of  a  kingdom 
whose  vessels  were  shut  into  the  narrow  Baltic  by  foreign  con- 
trol of  the  only  passage  out.  The  enterprise  henceforth  pro- 
ceeded with  as  much  vigor  as  the  circumstances  of  the  times 
would  permit,  under  the  direction  of  the  Mechanical  Corps  of 
the  Swedish  Navy. 


CHAPTER  n. 

EXPERIENCE  IN   THE  SWEDISH  ARMY. 

Autobiographical  Account  of  Ericsson's  Early  Life. — Finds  a  Friend  in 
CJount  von  Platen. — Training  on  the  Gota  Canal. — Death  of  Erics- 
son's Father. — Becomes  a  Soldier. — Military  Life  in  Jemtland. — 
"Wonderful  Gymnastic  Skill  and  Physical  Strength. — Promoted  to 
a  Lieutenantcy  and  Appointed  Government  Surveyor. — Birth  of  a 
Son. — His  Flame  Engine. 

WIIEX  Olof  Ericsson,  in  ISll,  removed  from  Langbans- 
hyttan  to  Forsvik,  in  the  liin  of  Skaraborg  or  Maries- 
tad,  his  eldest  son,  Xils,  was  nine  years  old,  and  John  was 
eight.  Up  to  this  time  the  bojs  appear  to  have  been  dependent 
largely  upon  home  instruction  for  their  education.  Indeed,  in  a 
fragment  of  autobiography  left  by  Xils,  he  relates  that  he  had 
no  other  education  previous  to  1S14.  This  did  not  agree  with 
the  recollection  of  the  younger  brother,  and  John's  eagerness 
for  knowledge  in  his  youth  makes  him  much  the  more  reliable 
witness.  A  letter  in  Swedish,  addressed  in  1ST9  to  a  relative 
in  Stockholm,  gives  some  interesting  particulars  of  his  early 
education.     In  this  John  says: 

Mt  Dear  Hjalmar:  Thanks  for  your  letter  of  the  26th  of  April, 
enclosing  a  copy  of  Nils  Ericsson's  autobiography.  It  was  with  the 
greatest  surprise  I  read  this  incomplete  and  very  erroneous  account. 
I  have  also  received  the  biography  of  the  deceased  engineer,  written  by 
Major  Adelskold  at  the  request  of  the  Royal  Academy  of  Science.  I 
have  read  with  great  sorrow  and  indignation  the  biography  reflecting  on 
my  father's  character  and  representing  him  as  neglecting  the  education 
of  his  sons.  No  reproach  could  be  more  unjust.  Olof  Ericsson  made 
all  possible  sacrifices  to  give  us  a  good  education. 

To  begin  with,  he  had  in  his  house  as  a  governess  during  the  years 
1811  and  1812,  Mrs.  Malmborg  from  Vermland,  and  I  remember  thank- 
fully all  she  taught  me.  At  the  same  time  he  gave  free  board  to  the 
talented  controller  who  was  then  employed  at  the  station  of  Forsvik, 


EXPERIENCE   IN   THE   SWEDISH    ARMY.  15 

that  he  might  teach  us  drawing  and  the  modern  English  style,  which  he 
executed  in  a  manner  rivalling  that  of  the  most  skilful  engravers.  Our 
father  also  secured  for  us  permission  from  the  chief,  Captain  Forsell,  to 
draw  in  the  office  of  the  draughtsmen  of  the  canal  company.  Thus  I 
secured  the  opportunity  in  the  year  1811  to  make  my  first  drawing  to 
the  scale.  I  was  also  enabled  to  learn  the  art  of  drawing  maps,  and  by 
the  end  of  the  year  1812  could  make  a  pretty  accurate  drawing,  had  an 
excellent  knowledge  of  drawing  instruments  and  was  well  skilled  in 
their  use. 

In  the  year  1813  my  father  succeeded  in  persuading  the  renowned 
director  of  instruction,  Pohl,  to  give  me  lessons  in  architectural  draw- 
ing. During  the  winter  of  1813-1-4,  while  we  were  living  at  the  saw- 
mills of  Edet,  where  my  father  was  commissioned  to  select  the  timber 
for  the  lock  gates  of  the  west  line  of  the  canal,  he  kept  in  his  house,  as  a 
tutor  for  his  sons.  Dr.  Azelius,  a  near  relative  of  the  celebrated  chemist. 

Of  course  he  plagued  us  with  lessons  in  the  Latin  grammar,  etc.,  but 
I  learned  from  him  many  other  things  of  use  to  me ;  for  instance,  how 
to  make  and  mix,  out  of  materials  obtained  at  the  druggist's  for  a  few 
cents,  the  colors  required  for  my  drawings.  In  the  summer  of  1814  we 
were  living  in  the  parish  of  Fredsberg,  ou  the  beautiful  Lefsting,  near 
Hajstorp  station,  where  my  father  held  a  position  next  to  that  of  the 
chief  of  the  work.  Then  he  got  permission  from  the  Court  Chaplain  to 
employ  the  curate  at  Lefsang  to  teach  his  boys  French. 

During  the  same  period  our  indefatigable  father  succeeded  in  per- 
suading the  greatest  mechanical  draughtsman  at  that  time  in  Sweden, 
Lieutenant  Brandenburg,  of  the  Mechanical  Corps  of  the  Navy,  to  teach 
us  the  modern  art  of  shading  or  finishing  ofi"  of  mechanical  drawings. 
The  great  draughtsman  was  also  good  enough  to  make  for  us  drawings  to 
serve  as  models  for  our  guidance.  These  I  afterward  used  as  patterns 
until  I  was  able  in  some  measure  to  emulate  the  master's  skill. 

On  one  of  his  visits  to  Lefsang,  Lieutenant  Brandenburg  was  accom- 
panied by  the  skilful  Captain  J.  Edstrom,  just  returned  from  England. 
This  warm-hearted  man  took  such  a  liking  to  Brandenburg's  pupils  that 
he  advised  our  father  to  take  us,  without  loss  of  time,  to  Count  Platen 
and  show  him  our  little  works.  The  great  man,  who  was  then  living  at 
Halmatorp,  encouraged  us  with  many  kind  words,  and  in  a  few  months 
the  boys  Nils  and  John  Ericsson  were  appointed  cadets  in  the  Mechanical 
Corps  of  the  Swedish  Navy.  Its  uniform  we  had  the  honor  of  wearing 
until  the  authorities  of  the  company  resolved  to  receive  '  Canal  Pi;pils.' 
It  was  not  long  after  I  entered  the  draughtsman's  office  of  the  Canal 
Company  at  Tatorp  before  I  was  able  to  make,  under  Captain  Edstrom's 
friendly  and  usefiil  direction,  profiles,  maps,  and  working  drawings  re- 
quired in  the  construction  of  the  canal. 

As  early  as  the  summer  of  1815,  Captain  Edstrom  commissioned  me 
to  make  drawings  for  the  archives  of  the  Canal  Company,  and  in  the 
year  1816,  at  the  age  of  thirteen,  I  was  assistant  leveller  at  the  station  of 


16 


LIFE   OF   JOHN'   ERICSSON. 


Riddarhagen.  In  the  year  1S17  I  was  the  only  lovelier  at  Rottkilms 
station,  on  the  west  line  of  the  canal.  In  1818,  at  the  age  of  fourteen  and 
three-quarter  years,  I  secured  the  position  of  leveller  on  the  east  line  of 
the  canal  at  tho  station  of  Norsholm,  under  the  command  of  Lieutenant 
Ryding,  chief  of  the  works.  My  salaiy  was  then  thirty  crowns  a  month 
with  qiaarters  and  travelling  exi^enses. 

This  extraordinarily  quick  promotion,  the  ability  to  fulfil  the  du- 
ties of  an  officer  required  to  make  the  plans  and  calculations  needed 
for  the  work  of  the  canal,  after  comparatively  little  i^ractice,  does  not 
bear  witness  to  a  neglected  education.     The  want  of   learninpr  of  which 


Headquarters   Gota   Canal   Corrpany. 


my  brother  complains  I  never  felt,  probably  because  I  devoted  all  my 
leisure  hours  to  study,  while  he  was  occupied  with  society.  It  is  cer- 
tain that  when  I  entered  the  Swedish  Army  in  1820,  at  the  age  of  seven- 
teen, I  would  not  have  exchanged  my  knowledge  for  that  possessed  by 
any  of  the  youth  who  had  passed  their  time  at  the  university.  TMien  I 
arrived  in  England,  at  the  age  of  twenty-two  and  three-quarter  years,  I 
was  not  only  equal,  but  superior  to  the  English  engineers  in  acquu-ed 
skill.  This  brief  account  should  be  sufficient  to  refute  the  accusation 
that  Olof  Ericsson  neglected  the  education  of  his  sons. 

At  another  time  I  will  give  you  a  fuller  account  of  what  his  young- 


EXPERIENCE   IN   THE   SWEDISH   ARMY.  17 

est  son  did  in  Sweden  from  the  time  wlien,  in  1809,  seventy  years  ago, 
he  dag  his  first  mine,  twelve  inches  in  depth,  and  made  for  it  with  kis 
little  hands,  a  ladder  and  windlass,  until  the  day  when,  in  Jemtland,  he 
made  his  final  experiment  in  raising  water  by  means  of  a  vacuum  created 
by  condensing  flame. 

My  father  wrote  a  beautiful  hand  and  was  an  excellent  bookkeei^er 
and  accountant.  He  possessed  keen  discernment  in  mechanical  matters 
and  was  a  great  admirer  of  Polhem.  Before  I  was  eleven  years  old,  the 
"mining  laborer"  had,  among  other  things,  taught  me  to  constract  an 
ellipse,  and  how  to  overcome  the  difficulty  connected  with  the  rotary 
motion  of  the  angles  by  the  use  of  a  ball-and-socket  joint.  The  ' '  mining 
laborer  "  also  taught  me  at  the  same  time  how  to  create  a  vacuum  and 
raise  water  by  the  condensation  of  flame.  I  shall  never  forget  the  joy  I 
experienced  when  my  father  extinguished  the  confined  flame  and  I  for 
the  first  time  saw  the  water  rising  in  the  glass  cylinder. 

Nor  is  it  true  that  my  mother  "  assisted  in  providing  for  her  family 
by  keeping  a  restaurant  for  the  laborers."  My  father's  salary  was  suffi- 
cient for  the  support  of  his  family,  but  she  was  persuaded  to  take  as 
boarders  the  civil  anti  military  officers  located  at  Forsvik  station  during 
the  years  1811-12.  This  charge  she  fulfilled  rather  as  a  hostess  than  as 
the  keeper  of  a  boarding-house,  and  the  result  was  most  unfortunate  for 
my  father.  At  the  end  of  the  two  years  he  was  deeply  in  debt  to  the 
tradesmen  at  Mariestad,  who  provided  groceries  for  the  too  liberal 
table.  In  1818,  after  the  death  of  my  father,  and  when  her  sons  were 
officers  upon  the  canal,  my  mother  again  undertook  to  board  the  officers 
belonging  to  the  different  stations.  As  everybody  saw  that  she  set  too 
generous  a  table  and  was  always  losing  money,  she  was  given  permis- 
sion to  brew  a  liquor  to  sell  to  the  troojis.  This  enabled  her  to  make 
good  her  losses  and  to  pay  the  debts  she  had  contracted  against  her 
husband.  I  recollect  so  well  the  pride  with  which  the  sensitive  wife 
told  me  that  she  had  sent  the  last  payment  to  her  husband's  creditors. 
"Nobody,"  she  said,  "can  now  insult  me  by  reminding  me  that  they 
have  sufiered  loss  of  money  through  my  husband."  After  my  father  left 
his  position  at  Hajstorp  station  he  was  employed  at  the  quarantine  sta- 
tion of  Kanso,  where  he  died,  in  the  summer  of  1818,  after  a  long  ill- 
ness, during  which  he  was  nursed  by  my  mother. 

The  statements  of  the  two  brothers  can  be  reconciled  by 
assigning  tliat  of  !Nils,  concerning  his  dependence  upon  his 
mother  for  liis  education,  to  the  period  preceding  his  fathers 
transfer  to  work  upon  the  Gota  Canal.  The  Captain  Ed- 
strom  referred  to  in  the  letter  quoted  was  "  Chief  of  the  Cen- 
tral Canal  District,"  and  one  of  the  two  Swedish  engineers, 
Lagerheim  being  the  other,  sent  by  Count  Platen  to  England, 


18  LIFE    OK   JOHX    EKICSSOX. 

at  tlie  expense  of  tlie  Canal  Company,  for  tlie  purpose  of  ob- 
taining exact  information  concerning  tlie  details  of  canal  con- 
struction. These  two  officers  returned  in  1815,  thoroughly  in- 
formed as  to  the  best  engineering  work  of  that  time,  and 
proceeded  to  instruct  a  number  of  pupils,  cadets  of  the  Swedish 
Corps  of  Mechanical  Engineers.  The  Ericsson  brothers  were 
among  these  cadets  ;  John  being  then  eleven  years  old  and  Xils 
twelve.  During  the  winter  of  lSlG-17  John  received  lessons 
in  chemistry  and  algebra  from  Professor  Kasl,  of  local  reputa- 
tion, who  was  engaged  upon  the  canal.  lie  was  also  taught 
field-drawing  and  geometry  by  a  German  engineer  officer.  Cap- 
tain Pentz,  who  was  building  the  fortification  of  Wanas  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Gota  Canal,  on  Lake  Yettern.  He  learned  Ens- 
lish  from  the  English  controller  of  the  works  at  Ilajstorp 
station,  and  had  the  opportunity  to  practise  it  Mith  Englishmen 
employed  on  the  canal. 

The  particulars  I  have  given  of  John  Ericsson's  early  edu- 
cation are  important  in  their  bearing  upon  his  future  career. 
"While  his  eagerness  for  instruction  was  extraordinary,  and  his 
capacity  for  absorbing  knowledge  unusual,  his  opportunity  for 
acquirement  was  also  a  rare  one  for  that  time  and  place — in- 
deed for  any  time  and  place — combining,  as  his  instruction 
did,  the  practical  and  the  theoretical.  lie  learned  thoi-oughly 
the  art  of  presenting  his  ideas  through  the  medium  of  mechan- 
ical drawings  and  made  himself  independent  of  models.  To  a 
friend  who  once  said  to  him,  '•'  It  is  a  pity  you  did  not  graduate 
from  a  technological  institute,"  Ericsson  replied,  "  Xo,  it  was 
very  fortunate.  Had  I  taken  a  course  at  such  an  institution  I 
should  have  acquired  such  a  belief  in  authorities  that  I  should 
never  have  been  able  to  develop  originality  and  make  my  own 
way  in  physics  and  mechanics,  as  I  now  propose  to  do."  "  The 
end,"  writes  his  friend,  Count  Rosen,  in  the  letter  quoted  from, 
"  has  proved  your  words  true." 

Except  for  the  advantageous  circumstances  of  John  Erics- 
son's youth  his  faculties  could  not  have  received  the  early 
development  which  made  possible  his  subsequent  achieve- 
ments ;  for  continually  occasions  arose  when  his  facility  in 
handling  the  tools  of  his  profession  was  an  important  element 
in  his  success.     His  extraordinary  natural  ability  having  been 


EXPERIENCE   IN   THE   SWEDISH   ARMY.  19 

thus  developed  by  early  training,  he  was  able  to  do  as  much  at 
the  drawing-board  in  a  given  time  as  two  ordinary  men.  Not 
only  did  nature  endow  Ericsson  with  an  aptitude  for  his  cho- 
sen profession  amounting  to  genius,  but  fortune  also  favored 
him  with  exceptional  opportunities  for  early  training  in  its 
mysteries. 

The  encouragement  he  received  from  Platen  had  also  a 
deciding  influence  in  determining  Ericsson's  future  career. 
"  Continue  as  you  have  begun,"  he  said  to  John,  "  and  you  will 
one  day  produce  something  extraordinary."  The  lad  was  not 
one  to  forget  such  a  greeting.  When  nearly  seventy  years  old, 
writing  of  another  who  in  his  youth  had  shown  him  similar 
kindness,  he  said,  "  I  always  held  him  in  the  greatest  es- 
teem ;  he  often  encouraged  me,  and  I  have  not  3'et  forgotten 
his  words.  What  he  said  to  the  warm-hearted  boy  were  not 
empty  words,  and  the  grain  he  sowed  has  borne  fruit."  Even 
at  the  time  he  was  introduced  to  Count  Platen  the  future  engi- 
neer had  astonished  the  local  gossips  with  a  saw-mill,  pumping- 
engine,  and  a  set  of  drawing  instruments  which  he  had  made, 
"  all  out  of  his  own  head."  Certainly  he  had  no  other  tools 
than  a  gimlet  and  a  jack-knife.  The  saw-mill  and  pump  were 
not  childish  attempts  at  imitation ;  they  were  practical  work- 
ing models,  needing  only  to  be  repeated  upon  a  larger  scale  to 
be  useful  machines.  The  boy  was  then  only  nine  years  old, 
and  we  may  imagine  the  delight  that  transported  this  youthful 
inventor  when  he  saw  the  water  actually  turning  the  wheel  he 
had  attached  to  this  mill  and  setting  its  miniature  machinery 
in  motion. 

Half  a  century  later,  when  John  Ericsson  was  asked  to  pre- 
pare a  list  of  his  most  noteworthy  mechanical  achievements,  the 
construction  of  this  saw-mill  headed  the  list  of  inventions,  the 
pumping-engine  and  the  drawing  instruments  coming  next. 
The  mill  was  neat  and  tasteful  in  design  and  in  every  way  a 
remarkable  piece  of  work  for  one  so  young.  In  a  square  wood- 
en frame  was  set  a  watch-spring,  transformed  into  a  saw  by  the 
aid  of  a  file  borrowed  from  a  neighboring:  blacksmith.  This  saw 
was  moved  by  a  crank  cast  from  a  broken  tin  spoon.  The  rest 
of  the  machinery  was  of  wood,  and  everything  was  complete — 
the  bed  carrying  the  log  and  moved  by  a  cord  wound  on  a 


20  LIFE   OF   JOHN    EKICSSOX. 

drnni ;  the  ratchet-wheel  and  lever  to  turn  the  drum  ;  the  crank 
bhaft  and  the  handle  fur  turning  it. 

Encouraged  by  the  success  of  this  venture,  tlie  next  year 
this  lad  of  ten  undertook  to  design  a  pump  for  draining  the 
mines  of  water.  The  motive  power  was  to  be  obtained  by 
the  use  of  a  windmill.  Such  a  contrivance  the  youthful  in- 
ventor had  never  seen,  yet  he  succeeded  in  drawing  designs 
for  his  mill  after  the  most  approved  fashion  of  skilled  engi- 
neers by  following  a  verbal  description  given  by  his  father  of 
a  mill  he  had  just  visited.  But  alas,  he  could  conceive  of  no 
way  of  adjusting  it  to  the  changes  of  the  wind  I  Again  the  fa- 
ther visited  a  neighborino:  mill  and  in  describing  it  referred  to 
a  '•  ball-and-socket  joint.''  The  buy  seized  the  idea  at  once  and 
with  his  pencil  joined  the  connecting-rod  for  the  driving-crank 
to  the  pump-lever  with  a  ball-and-socket  joint. 

John's  visits  to  the  office  of  the  draughtsmen  engaged  upon 
the  plans  of  the  grand  ship  canal  had  familiarized  him  with 
drawing  instruments  and  he  imitated  them  as  well  as  he  could. 
Ilis  home  was  in  the  depths  of  a  pine  forest,  where  his  father 
was  superintending  the  selection  of  timber  for  the  lock-gates  of 
the  canal ;  nothing  was  to  be  bought  and  he  had  nothing  to 
buy  with.  But  the  boy  was  as  independent  of  outside  assist- 
ance as  the  much-contriving  Crusoe  on  his  island.  Compasses 
were  made  of  birch-wood  with  needles  inserted  at  the  ends  of 
the  legs ;  steel  tweezers  borrowed  from  his  mother's  dressing- 
case  and  ground  to  a  point  furnished  a  drawing  pen,  the  thick- 
ness of  the  lines  being  effectually  reguKated  by  a  thread  slipped 
up  and  down  the  prongs. 

At  that  time  coloring  was  deemed  essential  to  the  complete- 
ness of  mechanical  drawings.  Gamboge  and  indigo  were  at 
hand  but  no  drawing  brushes.  After  many  refusals  the  young 
draughtsman  at  length  secured  permission  to  rob  his  mother's 
sable  cloak  of  the  hairs  required  for  two  small  brushes,  taking 
care  that  these  should  be  abstracted  with  such  skill  that  their 
absence  would  not  be  revealed.  Thus  equipped  he  was  able  to 
complete  his  drawing  with  the  wood  and  iron  distinguished  by 
appropriate  colors. 

It  was  this  plan,  conceived  and  executed  under  such  circum 
stances  by  a  mere  child,  that  attracted  the  attention  of  Count 


EXPERIENCE   IN  THE   SWEDISH   ARMY.  21 

Platen  and  opened  to  young  Ericsson  the  career  he  was  to 
follow  with  such  brilliant  results.  lie  was  not  precocious,  nor 
was  he  the  victim  of  any  process  of  forcing,  but  with  him  the 
comprehension  of  the  science  of  motion  was  as  intuitive  as  the 
perception  of  the  harmonies  of  color  with  Raphael  or  those  of 
musical  expression  with  Beethoven, 

Seeing  his  two  sons  raised  to  the  dignity  of  cadets  in  the 
Mechanical  Corps  of  the  Navy,  and  wearing  the  uniform  of  his 
Majesty's  service,  Olof  Ericsson  was  a  proud  and  happj^  father. 
Ilis  sacrifices  for  his  children  were  rewarded,  and  their  future, 
under  the  patronage  of  the  powerful  Count  Platen,  then  one 
of  the  most  influential  of  Swedish  subjects,  seemed  assured. 
At  this  time  John  also  executed  a  drawing  of  the  Sunderland 
iron  bridge,  and  this  Count  Platen,  years  after,  was  accustomed 
to  show  to  visitors,  when  recounting  his  experience  with  his 
youthful  prodigy. 

The  canal  opened  a  new  world  of  mechanical  interest  to 
John  and  he  was  not  content  to  limit  himself  to  the  labor  and 
study  required  by  his  duties  as  one  of  the  corps  of  construc- 
tion. After  his  w^ork  for  the  day  was  done  he  would  employ 
himself  during  the  long  winter  evenings  Avith  copying  the 
plans  of  the  canal  and  the  designs  of  the  machinery  and  imple- 
ments used  in  its  construction.  Of  these  he  had  a  complete  port- 
folio by  the  time  he  was  fifteen  years  of  age.  Still  this  healthy 
lad  found  time  for  the  sports  peculiar  to  the  Swedish  country 
life,  and  many  years  after  a  friend  of  his  youth  wrote  to  re- 
mind him  of  the  occasion  when  he  saved  from  drowning  one 
of  his  fellow-pupils  on  the  Gota  Canal  while  they  were  skat- 
ing on  the  ice  at  Motala. 

Upon  Europe  had  just  dawned  an  era  of  peace  destined  to 
last  for  a  generation,  but  its  results  were  not  yet  apparent  and 
Sweden  was  one  of  the  poorest  of  European  states.  It  was  a 
constant  struggle  to  woo  from  the  sandy  soil  of  the  stony  penin- 
sula even  a  scanty  harvest  of  red  rye,  and  the  minerals  wrested 
from  the  still  more  reluctant  rock  T)are]y  sufficed  to  make  good 
the  lack  of  daily  food.  Accumulation  was  almost  impossible 
and  enterprise  was  paralyzed  by  the  lack  of  capital  to  set  the 
wheels  of  industry  in  motion.  "  That  canal,"  the  peoj^le  in  its 
vicinity  were  accustomed  to  say,  "  is  sure  to  get  water  in  the 


22  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

end,  for  the  tears  of  the  stockholders  will  supply  it."  The 
changes  in  the  working  force  were  frequent,  because  of  the  lack 
of  money,  but  these  clianges  did  not  disturb  the  Ericsson  bojs. 

Though  Nils  was  the  elder  by  a  year  his  position  did  not 
equal  that  of  John,  for  he  tells  us  that  he  was  occupied  for 
four  sunnners,  or  until  he  was  seventeen  vears  old,  in  making 
mortar  and  in  carpenter-work.  John,  on  the  contrary,  was 
kept  at  this  menial  work  less  than  six  weeks.  In  the  winter 
the  brothers  were  busied  in  the  draughtsmen's  office  established 
by  Edstrdm  for  the  instruction  of  his  canal  pupils.  During 
the  long  summer  days  of  that  high  latitude  they  were  occupied 
with  out-door  work,  and  John  gained  such  skill  that  before  he 
was  fourteen  years  old  six  hundred  Swedish  troops  labored  upon 
the  canal  under  his  direction,  though  he  was  still  too  small  to 
reach  the  eye-piece  of  his  levelling  instrument  without  the  aid 
of  a  stool  carried  by  his  attendant.  Thus  was  John  Ericsson 
identified  almost  from  his  cradle  with  great  engineering  works, 
for  the  Gota  Canal  was  one  of  the  most  formidable  under- 
takings of  its  kind.  There  could  be  no  better  school  for  profes- 
sional training,  and  for  seven  years  he  enjoyed  its  advantages. 

"While  the  prospects  of  the  sons  were  daily  improving  the 
fortunes  of  the  father  were  on  the  ebb.  His  capacity  to  spend 
was  beyond  his  ability  to  earn,  and  the  generous-hearted  and 
liberal  Olof  Ericsson  was  again  in  pecuniary  difficulties.  Fail- 
ing health  added  to  his  troubles,  and  the  burden  of  life  grew 
too  heavy  for  him.  By  favor  of  Count  Platen  he  secured  a  sit- 
uation in  the  Quarantine  Office  at  Kanso,  a  little  island  in  the 
Kattegat,  near  Goteborg,  and  immediately  opposite  the  north- 
ei-n  extremity  of  Denmark.  Hither  he  removed,  leaving  the 
mother  with  her  two  boys,  who  were  still  employed  upon  the 
canal.  Soon  Mrs.  Ericsson  was  called  from  the  care  of  her 
sons  to  attend  upon  her  husband,  and,  in  the  summer  of  1S18, 
death  ended  his  unavailing  struggle  with  adverse  fortune. 

The  death  of  the  father  seems  to  have  made  but  little  change 
in  the  fortunes  of  the  Ericssons.  The  energetic  mother  was 
able  not  only  to  maintain  her  family,  but,  as  her  son  has  shown, 
to  pay  the  debts  left  by  her  husband.  Ker  sacrifices  for  her 
children  were  rewarded  by  their  love  and  reverence,  and  neither 
time  nor  absence  could  change  their  feeling  toward  her.     Mrs. 


EXPERIENCE   IN   THE   SWEDISH   ARMY.  23 

Ericsson  lived  until  her  sons  were  past  middle  life,  dying  in 
1853,  at  the  age  of  seventy-five.  "When  her  eldest  son,  Xils. 
married  in  1S33,  she  removed  to  his  home,  and  afterward  to 
that  of  her  daughter  Caroline,  who  had  married  the  Rev.  J. 
Oduer.  She  was  a  welcome  addition  to  the  household,  where 
she  occupied  herself  with  the  education  of  her  grandchildren, 
and  in  domestic  duties,  such  as  the  care  of  the  garden  and  poul- 
try-yard, for,  like  her  son  John,  she  was  always  busy.  Pier 
passion  for  reading  novels  does  not  appear  to  have  been  trans- 
mitted to  him,  though  he  did  inherit  her  marked  tendency  to 
liberality  in  religious  opinions.  In  spite  of  this  peculiarity, 
Mrs.  Ericsson  lived  pleasantly  with  lier  orthodox  son-in-law. 
Pastor  Odner,  whose  lines  seem  to  have  fallen  in  pleasant 
places,  for  his  Rectory  of  Ivinnekuna  was  charmingly  situated 
at  the  base  of  a  mountain  of  that  name,  rising  from  the  shores 
of  Lake  Yenern.  Here  Sophie  Ericsson  enjoyed  a  tranquil 
old  age,  telling  her  grandchildren,  as  stories  of  her  sons'  achieve- 
ments reached  her,  of  the  prophecy  that  preceded  their  birth. 

iS^ils,  M'ho  most  resembled  his  father,  was  the  mother's  fa- 
vorite. He  was  more  fond  of  pleasure  and  society  than  his 
younger  brother,  less  original  and  aggressive,  and  more  dis- 
posed to  follow  the  beaten  track  of  conservatism  than  his 
brother  John,  M'ho  was  from  the  beginning  searching  for  some 
new  way  of  doing  things,  for  some  novel  application  of  the 
mechanical  powers  to  add  new  forces  to  the  world's  wealth. 
Commenting  on  a  photograph,  John  once  said :  "  The  form  of 
the  forehead  indicates  that  the  man  will  see  things  as  they  are, 
and  not  as  they  ought  to  be,  a  circumstance  that  M'ill  remove 
obstacles  from  his  path  through  life."  This  prophetic  instinct 
toward  things  as  they  should  be  was  destined  to  keep  him  at 
war,  so  much  of  the  time,  with  received  opinions  on  engineer- 
ing subjects. 

In  1820,  when  Ericsson  was  seventeen  years  old,  he 
reached  a  point  in  his  career  where  two  ways  parted.  With 
the  first  suggestion  of  manly  independence  dawning  in  his 
mind  he  began  to  rebel  against  the  career  laid  out  for  him  by 
friends  and  guardians,  though  before  he  had  been  more  than 
content  with  it.  To  the  home  of  his  widowed  mother  had  come 
as  boarders  oflBcers,  civil  and  military,  at  work  upon  the  canal, 


24  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

and  her  house  was  the  rendezvous  for  the  troops  under  their  di- 
rection, ller  son  was  brought  into  association  with  those  who 
entertained  him  with  stories  of  the  great  world ;  the  world  in 
which  the  Corsican  cadet  of  Brienne  had  won  an  empire  with  his 
sword,  and  the  lawyer's  apprentice,  Bernadotte,  a  marshal's 
baton  and  a  crown.  Military  ambition  began  to  stir  in  the 
breast  of  the  youth.  Although  he  had  worn  the  king's  uniform, 
and  had  directed  the  king's  troops,  it  was  not  as  a  soldier.  He 
aspired  to  martial  deeds,  to  break  away  from  the  bonds  of 
routine,  and  to  lead  the  life  of  romance  and  adventure  which, 
to  the  imagination  of  the  young  man,  always  lies  just  beyond. 
So  he  resolved  to  enter  the  army. 

Knowing  well  that  his  military  ambition  would  receive  no 
encouragement  from  his  good  friend  Platen,  boy-like  lie  con- 
cealed his  purpose  from  the  Count.  "When  it  was  made  known 
to  Platen  he  was  greatly  disturbed  and  urged  upon  his  young 
protege  the  importance  of  continuing  a  career  which  opened 
with  such  promise  before  him.  By  every  possible  argument  he 
sought  to  turn  him  from  his  purpose,  but  in  vain.  Finally, 
out  of  all  patience  with  the  perverse  youth,  the  Count  left  him 
with  the  parting  admonition,  to  "go  to  the  devil." 

The  organization  of  the  Swedish  army  is  peculiar.  In  ad- 
dition to  a  small  body  of  troops  of  the  line,  there  is  a  larger 
force,  composed  of  a  sort  of  peasant  yeomanry  attached  to  the 
soil  and  supported  by  it,  an  Institution  dating  from  the  dis- 
tribution in  1697  of  crown  lands,  subject  to  an  obligation  of 
military  service.  "When  not  in  active  service  these  troops  cul- 
tivate their  lands,  or  they  are  employed  by  the  government  in 
constructing  roads  and  fortifications,  in  draining  marshes,  dig- 
ging canals,  or  in  other  public  works.  It  was  to  one  of  these 
regiments,  then  known  as  the  Twenty-third  Regiment  Rifle 
Corps,  and  now  as  the  Royal  Fiilt  Ziigar,  or  Field  Chasseurs 
of  Jemtland,  that  John  Ericsson  was  assigned  with  the  rank  of 
Ensign.  The  headquarters  of  the  regiment  were  at  Froson. 
near  Ostersimd,  the  capital  of  Jemtland,  the  Idji  of  Sweden 
now  governed  by  the  second  Baron  Ericsson,  the  nephew  and 
namesake  of  John,  and  eldest  son  of  Nils.  The  regiment  was 
a  famous  body  of  riflemen  and  Ensign  Ericsson  was  soon  num- 
bered among  its  most  expert  marksmen. 


EXPERIENCE  IN  THE   SWEDISH   ARMY.  25 

Just  at  this  period  Ilennk  Ling  was  introducing  into  Swe- 
den liis  scientific  system  of  gymnastics,  based  upon  a  study  of 
anatomy,  and  was  endeavoring  to  restore  the  invigorating  cus- 
toms of  ancient  Scandinavia,  where  grew  such  men  as  Olaf 
Tryggveson,  the  first  Christian  king  of  Norway,  who,  as  Car- 
lyle  tells  us,  "  could  keep  five  daggers  in  the  air,  always  catch- 
ing the  proper  fifth  by  its  liandle,  and  sending  it  aloft  again ; 
could  shoot  supremely,  throw  a  javelin  with  either  hand ;  ex- 
celling also  in  swimming,  climbing,  leaping,  the  then  admirable 
Fine  Arts  of  the  Korth ;  in  all  which  Tryggveson  appears  to 
have  been  the  Raphael  and  the  Michael  Angelo  at  once." 

If  Ensign  Ericsson  could  not  equal  this  "  magnificent  far- 
shining  man,"  the  Hercules  of  Scandinavian  history,  he  certain- 
ly was  a  worthy  successor.  With  characteristic  enthusiasm  and 
energy  he  entered  into  the  sports  of  his  fellows  and  was  soon 
the  champion  in  wrestling,  leaping,  lifting,  and  the  like.  He 
had  the  bodily  strength  of  two  ordinary  men.  At  first  his  zeal 
outran  his  discretion  and  in  leaping  bars  he  was  again  and 
again  thrown,  hurting  himself  badly  ;  but  difficulties  never  dis- 
couraged him.  On  one  occasion  while  in  garrison  at  Froson, 
across  the  river  from  Ostersund,  he  lifted  a  cannon  weighing 
six  hundred  pounds,  a  feat  making  such  an  impression  on  his 
comrades  that  one  of  them  wrote  to  remind  him  of  it  half  a 
century  afterward.  He  was  only  eighteen  years  old  when  he 
performed  this  exploit.  The  effort  was  too  great,  and  he  suf- 
fered in  after  life  at  intervals  from  the  injury  to  his  back  re- 
sulting from  this  supreme  effort  of  strength.  On  the  whole, 
however,  he  gained  greatly  from  this  thorough  physical  train- 
ing and  was  noted  through  life  for  his  vigor  and  endurance, 

I^ot  in  physical  feats  alone  did  the  young  officer  excel.  He 
devoted  himself  with  ardor  to  the  study  of  his  new  profession 
and,  with  his  previous  training  to  assist,  became  known  almost 
immediately  as  an  expert  artillery  draughtsman.  He  studied  the 
science  of  artillerj^,  too,  and  familiarized  himself  with  the  man- 
ipulation of  the  eighty-pounders  employed  on  the  Baltic  gun- 
boats when  nothing  larger  than  a  forty-pounder  was  known  in 
the  American  navy.  He  never  lost  the  interest  in  military  and 
naval  subjects  then  acquired  and  it  was  in  part  the  secret  of  his 
later  successes  in  a  field  wherein  he  was  supposed  to  be  a  novice. 


26 


LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 


lu  a  letter  to  hia 
mother,  written  at  this 
period,  Ericsson  thus 
describes  liis  early  ex- 
periences as  a  soldier : 

OSTEBSUND  AND  StOR- 

viKEK,  August  15,  1821. 
My  Dear  Mamma  : 
"We  have  now  finished 
our  Annual  Mihtary  Ma- 
ncEuvies,  which  lasted  for 
seven  weeks.  During 
that  time  I  have  learned 
tolerably  well  what  it 
means  to  be  a  soldier,  and 
am  inspired  with  an  un- 
changing love  for  tha 
military  profession.  Our 
colonel  has  just  left  for 
Stockholm.  As  we  part- 
ed I  reminded  him  of  his 
promise.  "I  will  keep 
my  promise  to  you,"  he 
said,  "and  the  drawing 
you  gave  me  I  shall  pre- 
sent to  the  King  at  the 
fii'st  audience.  He  cer- 
tainly will  ajipoint  you  an 
ofiicer  ;  at  any  rate,  you 
are  sure  to  be  promoted." 
He  also  told  me  he  wished 
me  to  pass  my  examina- 
tion in  the  art  of  land 
surveying ;  for  this  rea- 
son I  .shall  be  obliged  to 
spend  the  winter  in 
Stockholm,  whatever  my 
means  may  be.  The  ex- 
penses will,  I  fear,  be 
heavy  enough,  as  I  must  buy  geodetical  instruments  ;  besides,  the  pat- 
tern of  our  new  uniform  is  now  fixed,  and  in  consequence  I  must  get 
a  green  coat  with  epaulettes,  new  uniform  trousers,  epaulettes  for  the 
dress-coat,  scales  for  the  shako,  a  new  sword  of  the  special  pattern  of 
our  regiment,  a  scarf  and  other  small  military  ornaments.     I  must  also 


Lieutenant  John  Ericsson,  Jemtland   Field  Chasseurs. 


EXPERIEN-CE   IN   THE   SWEDISH   ARMY.  27 

pay  for  my  commission.  Now,  I  don't  mention  all  this  to  cause  you 
anxiety,  dearest  mother,  only  to  show  you  that  I  really  have  necessary 
expenses  and  do  not  sjDend  my  money  carelessly  and  to  no  purpose. 

I  think  I  can  defray  most  of  the  charges  myself,  but  if  you  could 
spare  fifty  rixdollars  early  in  the  winter  without  inconvenience,  I  should 
be  glad  to  have  them.  However,  if  you  are  short  of  money,  I  should 
consider  myself  unworthy  to  be  called  your  son  if  I  ever  thought  of  such 
a  thing.  I  know  your  business  is  getting  along  well  now ;  still  I  feel 
almost  ashamed  of  my  request  and  I  am  really  grieved  to  think  that,  old 
as  I  am,  I  have  many  times  been  forced  to  solicit  the  assistance  of  a 
mother  who  has  to  work  for  every  farthing  without  aid.  I  know,  how- 
ever, the  kindness  of  my  mother's  heart !  "No sacrifice  is  too  great  when 
the  hai^piness  of  my  child  is  concerned,"  you  think.  What  a  blessing  to 
have  a  mother  with  such  sentiments !  I  have  about  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five  rixdollars  left  out  of  the  money  you  gave  me,  and  I  expect 
some  more  from  Cajitain  Edstrom.  By  careful  economy  I  can  manage 
to  get  on  imtil  I  receive  my  salary,  when  I  shall  be  quite  comfortable, 
for  with  eleven  hundred  and  twenty-five  a  year  I  shall  be  able  to  save 
money  for  a  lieutenant's  commission  and  -p&j  my  debts  to  you. 

With  God's  help,  I  hope  to  be  appointed  a  lieutenant  within  two 
years'  time,  for  there  are  only  four  second  lieutenants  in  advance  of  me, 
and  many  vacancies  Just  now.  I  am  the  oldest  staflf  ensign  of  those  who 
are  to  be  oflScers  at  the  same  time  as  I. 

With  the  heartiest  wishes  for  your  happiness,  and  kindest  regards  for 
my  brother  and  sister,  I  remain. 

Your  obedient  and  loving  son, 

J.  Ekicsson. 

P.  S. — At  present  I  board  in  a  farm-house  very  cheaply.  I  am  study- 
ing Euclid.  Later  on  I  am  going  to  practise  plotting  under  the  Sur- 
veying General,  as  it  requires  a  certificate  to  show  that  I  can  measure 
and  map  before  I  am  allowed  to  pass  my  examination.  My  kind  regards 
to  Halstrom  ;  I  long  impatiently  for  a  letter  from  him. 

Jemtland,  wliere  young  Ericsson's  regiment  was  stationed, 
and  with  which  the  fortunes  of  his  family  have  now  been  asso- 
ciated for  two  generations,  is  a  mountain  district,  lying  two 
hundred  miles  further  north  than  Vermland,  and  it  is  even 
more  striking  in  natural  scenery,  being  the  location  of  the 
highest  mountains  of  Sweden.  From  the  hills  of  "  beautiful 
Froson,"  a  little  town  divided  from  Ericsson's  station  by  a  nar- 
row channel  spanned  by  a  wooden  bridge,  a  splendid  view  of 
the  greater  part  of  the  northern  portion  of  Sweden  is  to  be  ob- 
tained.   In  the  foreground  is  the  picturesque  lake,  or  rather  net- 


28  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

work  of  lakes,  called  "  Storsjon,"  Dumerous  wooded  islands  dot- 
ting  its  surface,  and  beyond,  to  the  west,  the  "  dark  Oviks"  fur- 
nish a  sombre  background,  nntil  they  blend  in  the  distant  ho- 
rizon with  the  mountains  whose  huge  peaks  seem  to  stand  like 
a  wall  of  separation  between  the  two  kingdoms  of  Sweden  and 
Korway.  To  the  north  stretches  an  immense  wilderness  where, 
in  Ericsson's  day,  roamed  the  Laplanders  with  their  herds  of 
reindeer.  To  the  south  lies  a  charming  landscape  of  hill  and 
dale,  intersected  by  numerons  watercourses,  lakes  smiling  in 
the  sun,  and  foaming  brooks  plunging  down  the  steep  hill- 
sides to  disappear  in  the  green-clad  valleys  beyond. 

In  other  sections  of  Sweden  the  valleys  near  the  high  moun- 
tains are  uncultivated  and  almost  uninhabited  ;  here  they  sup- 
port a  thrifty  population.  The  general  character  of  Jemtland 
is  that  of  a  highland  nearly  a  thousand  feet  above  the  sea  level. 
It  is  as  far  north  as  Hudson  Straits,  or  Southern  Greenland 
and  Iceland,  and  nowhere  else  is  there  to  be  found  in  a  cor- 
responding latitude,  with  an  equal  elevation,  a  section  so  highly 
cultivated  as  this  has  been  from  time  immemorial.  Rich 
meadows  furnish  pastures  for  the  herds  that  constitute  the  chief 
wealth  of  the  people.  The  eighteen  churches  which  can  be 
counted  from  a  mountain  on  the  southern  shores  of  Lake  Stor- 
sjon testify  to  the  extent  and  character  of  the  population  now 
under  the  government  of  Ericsson's  nephew. 

The  recommendation  for  Ensign  Ericsson's  promotion  went 
to  Stockholm  in  due  course,  but  unfortunately  his  colonel,  Baron 
Koskull,  was  in  disgrace  at  court,  and  the  recommendation  was 
not  heeded.  The  young  Duke  of  Upland,  Bernadotte's  son,  in- 
terceded with  the  king,  winning  his  interest  in  Ericsson  by 
showing  his  soldier-father  a  military  map  made  by  the  ensign. 
This  not  only  secured  the  desired  commission  of  a  second  lieu- 
tenant, but  it  also  directed  the  attention  of  Bernadotte  to  the 
great  skill  of  Ericsson  in  this  work.  As  a  result,  later  on  he 
was  summoned  to  the  royal  palace  to  draw  maps  to  illustrate 
the  campaigns  of  the  Marshal  of  the  Empire. 

A  comrade  of  this  period,  Major  Iljarne,  who  survived  Erics- 
son, describes  the  young  officer  as  "  a  noble  lad,  frank,  faithful, 
and  honest."  lie  was  never  given  to  promiscuous  acquaintance, 
but  with  his  little  circle  of  intimates  he  was  a  special  favorite. 


EXPERIENCE  IN"   THE   SWEDISH   ARMY.  29 

His  temper  was  hasty,  but  his  disposition  was  lively,  cheerful, 
and  amiable.  Major  Iljarne  recalls  the  picture  of  him  as  he  lay 
extended  on  the  floor  of  his  quarters,  "  eating  sugar  and  enjoy- 
ing himself  like  a  merry  school-boy,  for  he  was  very  fond  of 
sweets."  Not  a  strictly  personal  characteristic,  for  he  was  at 
that  time  a  lad  not  yet  out  of  his  teens.  Still,  it  was  a  taste 
that  he  never  outgrew,  and  three  score  and  ten  years  later, 
there  was  found  in  his  room,  after  his  death,  the  little  store  of 
the  sweetmeats  which  he  always  kept  by  him.  "  He  was  ex- 
ceedingly active,"  we  are  further  told,  "  always  inventing,  de- 
signing, constructing." 

Young  Ericsson  had  made  such  excellent  use  of  the  instruc- 
tion in  topographical  drawing  received  from  the  German  engi- 
neer officer  Pentz,  that  when  he  entered  the  Swedish  army  he 
found  no  one  to  excel  him,  with  the  exception  of  one  officer, 
Major  Sodermark,  who  was  renowned  in  this  department.  Soon 
after  he  joined  the  service  orders  were  given  to  survey  the 
district  of  Jemtland  in  which  he  was  stationed.  Officers  to 
perform  this  work  were  selected  by  a  competitive  examination 
at  Stockholm,  and  in  this  contest  Ericsson  easily  won  a  prize. 
The  pay  in  his  new  employment  was  determined  by  the  amount 
accomplished,  and  the  young  surveyor  from  the  Gota  Canal 
was  so  indefatigable  in  his  industry  and  so  rapid  in  execution, 
that  he  performed  double  duty  and  was  carried  on  the  pay-roll 
as  two  persons  in  order  to  avoid  criticism  and  charges  of  favor- 
itism. The  results  of  his  labors  were  maps  of  fifty  square  miles 
of  territory,  still  preserved  in  the  archives  at  Stockholm. 

Even  this  double  duty  was  not  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  rest- 
less energy  and  activity  of  the  young  chasseur,  for  in  this  high 
northern  latitude  he  could  protract  his  work  at  the  drawing- 
board  through  the  entire  night,  and  this  he  frequently  did, 
without  resort  to  artificial  light,  except  for  a  few  hours.  As 
occupation  for  his  "leisure"  he  bethought  himself  of  the 
sketches  and  mechanical  drawings  he  had  accumulated  during 
his  service  under  Count  Platen.  lie  decided  to  use  them  in 
a  work  he  proposed  to  prepare  for  publication,  containing  a 
full  description  of  the  machinery  and  methods  used  in  canal 
work,  the  locks,  and  the  various  appliances  for  transporta- 
tion.    He  enlisted  in  this  enterprise  Major  Pentz,  late  pro- 


EXPERIENCE   IN   THE   SWEDISH   ARMY.  31 

fessor  at  Rostock,  Germany,  and  probably  the  officer  of  the 
same  name  from  whom  his  lessons  in  topographical  drawing 
had  been  received.  Pentz  was  to  translate  the  work  into  Ger- 
man to  give  it  foreign  currency. 

It  was  necessary  to  engrave  the  drawings  selected  to  illustrate 
the  book,  and  Lieutenant  Ericsson  determined  to  do  this  work 
himself.  So  he  obtained  leave  of  absence  and  hastened  to 
Stockholm  where  he  applied  to  one  of  the  best  engravers  for 
permission  to  inspect  his  tools,  and  was  laughed  at  for  his  sim- 
plicity in  supposing  that  he  was  to  be  thus  permitted  to  learn 
the  mysteries  of  the  craft.  ISTothing  daunted  he  hastened  to 
his  room  and  set  busily  to  work  devising  a  machine  for  engrav- 
ing. This  he  was  soon  able  to  show  in  triumph  to  the  disoblig- 
ing craftsman.  Back  to  his  station  he  went  with  his  new  ma- 
chine and  commenced  work  upon  the  sixty-five  plates  of  copper 
carried  with  him.  Within  a  year  he  had  completed  eighteen 
plates,  averaging  in  size  fifteen  by  twenty  inches.  One  of  these 
plates,  tlie  second  one  completed,  was  reproduced  in  a  Swedish 
illustrated  magazine  and  is  given  here.  In  acknowledging  the 
receipt  of  a  copy  of  this  Ericsson  said  :  "  I  remember  very  well 
the  surprise  of  certain  engravers  at  the  sharp  white  edges  of  the 
pump-rods  against  the  dark  ground.  The  plan  of  rubbing  these 
parts  with  a  fine  varnish  before  the  plates  were  prepared  for  the 
aqua  fortis,  which  suggested  itself  to  the  beginner,  enabled  him 
to  surpass  the  work  of  experienced  artists." 

Other  occupations  delayed  the  book,  and  before  it  had  gone 
farther  it  became  apparent  that  the  swift  changes  in  the  ap- 
plications of  machinery  and  the  use  of  new  methods  were  render- 
ing the  knowledge  acquired  at  Gota  out  of  date.  So  this  un- 
dertaking was  abandoned.  Major  Pentz  never  got  farther  than 
the  preface  with  his  part  of  the  work,  but  as  he  had  advanced 
some  money  to  purchase  the  copper  plates,  the  completed  en- 
gravings were  all  turned  over  to  him  in  settlement  of  this  ac- 
count.  Busy  as  he  was,  the  ardent  young  Swede  found  time 
for  sentiment,  for  this  was  the  romantic  period  in  the  young 
man's  life.  During  it  Ericsson  established  friendships  and 
developed  enthusiasms  which  continued  with  him  to  the  end. 
More  than  fifty  years  after,  when  his  knowledge  of  Swedish  had 
grown  somewhat  rusty  from  disuse,  he  wrote  home  to  Sweden : 


32  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

"  Overwhelmed  with  work,  I  liave  not  had  the  time  to  write  the 
description  you  ask  for  in  my  native  tongue.  I  can  think  in 
Ensrlish  four  times  faster  than  I  can  write  in  Swedish,  and 
write  four  times  faster  tlian  I  can  think.  As,  now,  4  x  4  =  16 
you  will  find  my  excuses  sufficient.  But  this  is  only  the  case  in 
mechanical  matters,  because  when  the  language  of  the  heart  is 
to  be  used  I  prefer  to  express  myself  in  my  native  tongue.  Al- 
though ignorant  of  all  that  properly  belongs  to  mechanical  phi- 
losophy when  I  left  Sweden,  I  was  by  no  means  inexperienced  in 
the  language  of  feeling.  I  sometimes  wrote  poetry  to  the  won- 
derful and  enchanting  midnight  light  of  iSTorrland.  Connois- 
seurs often  doubted  that  it  came  from  the  second  lieutenant  and 
surveyor  up  among  the  mountains."  jS^orrland  is  within  less 
than  three  degrees  of  the  Arctic  circle,  and  there  the  phenome- 
non of  the  midnight  sun  is  to  be  seen  in  perfection. 

Human  nature  is  the  same  under  the  Arctic  circle  as  in  the 
torrid  zone ;  indeed,  as  Ericsson  was  fond  of  arguing,  the  con- 
ditions of  life  in  high  latitudes  are  even  more  exciting.  He 
was  a  man  of  ardent  temperament,  and  his  veins,  through  life, 
were  always  swollen  to  bursting  with  the  swift-flowing  current 
of  healthy  masculine  vitality.  The  glories  of  the  midnight 
sun  could  inspire  him  with  poetry,  but  the  sparkling  eyes  of 
the  Jemtland  maidens  moved  him  still  more  profoundly.  To 
one  of  these  the  young  lieutenant  became  deeply  attached.  She 
was  of  an  ancient  and  noble  family,  and  her  father  was  an  of- 
ficer of  high  rank.  To  her  Ericsson  was  betrothed,  with  those 
formalities  which,  in  Swedish  opinion  at  that  time,  imposed  the 
obligations  of  marriage,  and  were  not  infi-equently  extended  to 
include  its  sanctions  as  well.  Indeed,  under  early  Scandinavian 
law,  a  betrothal  without  marriage  secured  rights  of  inheritance 
to  a  child  born  of  such  a  connection  that  did  not  belong  to  the 
child  of  a  marriage  not  preceded  by  betrothal. 

The  laws  of  Sweden  regulating  the  marriage  of  army  officers 
were  exacting,  and  made  impossible  a  legal  union  between  a 
poor  lieutenant  and  a  maiden  whose  womanly  charms  and  her 
excellent  birth  were  her  only  dower.  Precisely  liow  the  pair 
stood  related  to  one  another  from  our  ]wint  of  view  cannot,  at 
this  distance  of  time,  be  determined.  The  connection  was  sul> 
sequently  dissolved,  and  being  free,  the  young  woman  married 


Ericsson  at  the  Age  of  Twenty-one. 


EXPERIENCE   IN  THE   SWEDISH   ARMY.  35 

another  Swede  of  distinguished  reputation,  and  lived  to  old  age 
as  his  wife.  One  son,  Iljalmar,  was  born  at  this  time,  and  was 
left  in  charge  of  Ericsson's  mother  in  Sweden  when  he  removed 
to  England.  This  child  was  well  educated,  and  became  a  man 
highly  respected  and  holding  a  prominent  position  in  govern- 
ment employ.  Ericsson  at  the  age  of  twenty-one  is  described 
as  a  handsome,  dashing  youth,  with  a  cluster  of  thick,  brown, 
glossy  curls  encircling  his  white,  massive  forehead.  His  mouth 
was  delicate  but  firm,  nose  straight,  eyes  light  blue,  clear  and 
bright,  with  a  slight  expression  of  sadness,  his  complexion  bril- 
liant with  the  freshness  and  glow  of  healthy  youth.  The  broad 
shoulders  carried  most  splendidly  the  proud,  erect  head.  He 
presented,  in  short,  the  very  picture  of  vigorous  manhood.  A 
portrait  of  him  at  this  age,  painted  upon  ivory  for  his  mother 
by  an  English  artist  named  Way,  has  been  preserved  and  is 
reproduced  here. 

Recalling  his  father's  experiments,  Ericsson  at  this  time 
conceived  the  idea  that  flame  might  be  nsed  in  a  receiver  cor- 
responding to  the  cylinder  of  a  steam  engine.  Thus  he  hoped 
to  obtain  power  equal  to  that  of  steam  with  less  expenditure 
of  time  and  fuel.  Devoting  to  tliis  project  such  leisure  as  lie 
had,  he  finally  succeeded  in  constructing  a  machine  to  illustrate 
his  principle.  He  set  it  in  motion,  and  to  his  delight  discov- 
ered that  it  worked  perfectly  and  produced  several  horse-power. 
Dreams  of  a  coming  revolution  in  the  mechanical  world  occu- 
pied his  waking  thoughts.  He  prepared  a  paper,  a  translation 
of  which  now  lies  before  me,  entitled,  "A  Description  of  a  New 
Method  of  Employing  the  Combustion  of  Fuel  as  a  Moving 
Power."  This  was  written  in  Swedish,  and  sent,  in  1825  or 
1826,  to  the  newly-organized  "  Institution  of  Civil  Engineers," 
London,  where  a  translation  of  it  is  still  filed  among  the  ar- 
chives, "  No.  119." 


CHAPTER  ni. 

ERICSSON  IN  ENGLAND. 

Eemoves  to  London, — His  Promotion  and  Resignation  as  a  Swedish 
Officer. — Becomes  a  Partner  of  John  Bi-aithwaite. — First  Use  of 
Compressed  Air  and  Artificial  Draught. — His  Novel  Applications  of 
Steam-power. — Invents  Surface  Condensation. — Quarrels  with  Sir 
John  Eoss.— Invents  the  Steam  Fire-engine.— Prejudices  of  the 
London  Firemen  against  it. 

WITH  the  invention  of  the  Flame  Engine  a  new  era  opened 
before  John  Ericsson.  If  the  dreams  suggested  bj  this 
first  appeal  to  the  judgment  of  the  great  world  were  not  des- 
tined to  literal  fulfilment  they  were  at  least  prophetic  of  his 
future.  Military  life  lost  its  zest,  and  he  turned  from  it,  as  he 
had  turned  to  it,  with  characteristic  impatience  of  control. 
King  Charles  John,  when  shown  his  drawings,  had  advised 
him  to  go  abroad,  as  his  own  country  could  not  reward  him  as 
he  deserved.  This  advice  was  given  now  with  more  effect  by 
one  of  Ericsson's  brother  officers,  who,  in  a  letter  written  forty- 
seven  years  afterward,  said  :  "  I  remember  the  ensign,  by  whom 
I  was  so  struck  that  I  asked  my  brother  officers  to  accept  him 
as  a  comrade,  and  urged  the  colonel  to  secure  his  promotion. 
I  could  not  bear  the  thought  of  his  genius  burying  itself  in 
Jemtland,  and  when  I  heard  of  his  attachment  for  a  poor  girl 
I  considered  him  lost  to  the  world  if  he  should  settle  there. 
I  advised  him  to  go  to  England.  lie  at  once  replied  that  I 
ought  not  to  have  awakened  a  thought  that  had  long  slumbered 
within  him  when  I  knew  that  his  want  of  means  made  it  im- 
possible for  him  to  realize  his  ambition.  '  How  much  do  you 
need  to  start  out  with  ? '  I  asked.  lie  answered,  '  I  could  go 
in  a  fortnight  if  I  had  a  thousand  crowns.'  I  asked  him  to 
draw  a  note  for  this  sum  ;  this  I  endorsed  and  took  to  the  bank, 
and  a  fortnight  later  he  had  the  money." 


ERICSSON  IN   ENGLAND.  37 

Leave  of  absence  was  obtained,  and  the  bright  young  lieu- 
tenant, who  had  been  the  pride  of  the  Royal  Chasseurs,  turned 
his  face  toward  England,  carrying  with  him  the  hearty  good 
wishes  of  his  comrades  and  their  honest  regrets  at  parting.  On 
his  way  through  Stockholm  he  spent  a  week  in  the  capital,  par-' 
ticipating  in  the  festivities  attending  the  birth,  on  May  3, 1826, 
of  the  heir  to  the  throne,  afterward  Charles  XY.  of  Sweden 
and  ^Norway. 

The  snow  was  melting  from  the  mountains  and  the  birches 
were  budding  in  the  valleys  when  John  Ericsson  left  the  na- 
tive land  he  never  ceased  to  love,  to  seek  elsewhere  the  op- 
portunities she  was  too  poor  to  offer  him.  What  possibili- 
ties were  too  great  in  the  wider  field  that  opened  before  this 
vigorous  young  genius,  with  a  thousand  crowns  in  his  pocket 
and  a  substitute  for  the  steam-engine  among  his  luggage? 
Arriving  in  England  on  Friday,  May  18,  1826,  Ericsson  pro- 
ceeded as  soon  as  possible  to  exhibit  his  wonderful  Flame  En- 
gine in  operation.  It  worked  satisfactorily  under  the  condi- 
tions intended,  but  unexpected  difficulties  arose  when  he  was 
compelled  to  use  coal  instead  of  the  resinous  woods,  so  abun- 
dant in  his  native  forests.  Coal  burned  too  slowly,  and  in  place 
of  the  gentle  flame  gave  out  a  fierce  heat  that  speedily  destroyed 
the  working  parts  of  the  engine. 

This  was  no  light  misfortune  for  the  young  man  whose  hopes 
were  centred  in  the  venture.  Even  a  thousand  crowns  will 
not  last  forever,  especially  where  the  money  is  borrowed,  and 
to  the  expenses  of  travel  were  added  the  cost  of  setting  up  and 
exhibiting  his  machine.  Cynical  criticism  succeeded  to  the 
friendly  admiration  he  had  received  at  home,  and  the  necessity 
of  securing  an  income  speedily  convinced  him  that  it  was  use- 
less to  give  further  attention  to  the  Flame  Engine ;  so  he  turned 
his  back  for  a  time  upon  his  ambitious  scheme  of  superseding 
steam.  He  was  compelled  to  seek  employment,  and  almost  be- 
fore he  knew  it,  was  committed  to  remain  in  England.  Appar- 
ently', he  had  obtained  leave  of  absence  with  the  intention  of 
resigninor  from  the  Swedish  service.  For  some  reason  he 
seems  to  have  overstayed  his  leave,  and  was  technically  in  the 
position  of  a  deserter.  Through  the  intervention  of  his  friend, 
the  Crown  Prince,  he  was  honorably  restored  to  the  service 


38  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

by  the  issue  to  him  on  October  3,  1827,  of  a  commission 
as  captain  in  the  Swedish  Army.  This  commission  he  resigned 
on  the  same  day.  The  peculiar  circumstances  under  which  it 
was  received  appear  to  have  given  the  title  of  Captain  special 
value  in  his  eyes,  and  he  used  it  until  the  end  of  his  life. 

K  the  immediate  purpose  of  Ericsson's  transfer  to  England 
viras  not  accomplished,  his  introduction  to  another  field  of  ac- 
tivity was  timely.  A  new  era  was  opening  to  English  engi- 
neers, and  for  this  the  young  Swede's  peculiar  abilities  and 
special  training  exactly  fitted  him.  It  was  the  characteristic 
of  his  mind,  as  1  have  said,  to  see  things  as  they  ought  to  be, 
and  not  as  they  are.  His  spirit  of  adventure  into  new  regions 
was  as  indomitable  as  that  of  the  Xorse  rovers  from  whom  he 
inherited  his  mental  constitution.  All  things  in  the  engineering 
world  were  to  be  made  new,  and  there  was  need  of  men  able 
to  discard  the  teachings  of  precedent  without  substituting 
the  conceit  of  ignorance.  To  England  Ericsson  carried  his 
wonderful  physique,  his  magnificent  brain,  an  unusual  train- 
ing in  the  technique  of  his  profession,  and  a  capacity  for  work 
which  was  in  itself  genius.  The  Flame  Engine  had  not  re- 
alized the  expectations  of  the  Xorrland  garrison,  but  in  it  were 
the  germs  of  ideas  destined  to  grow  and  produce  fruit. 

There  was  something  about  the  young  man  that  inspired  con- 
fidence in  those  brought  into  personal  contact  with  him.  To 
the  ingenuousness  of  youth  he  added  the  experience  of  man- 
hood, and  the  lieutenant  of  twenty-three  was  too  obviously  a 
master  in  his  profession  to  be  kept  long  in  waiting.  He  was 
fortunate  enough  to  establish  himself  almost  immediately  in 
intimate  relations  with  the  machine  manufacturing  house  of 
John  Braithwaite,  and  soon  after  he  became  the  junior  partner 
in  the  firm  of  "  Braithwaite  &  Ericsson."  "  It  was  mv  jrood 
fortune,"  he  tells  us,  "  to  meet  with  Mr.  Braithwaite's  approba- 
tion and  friendship.  In  the  various  mechanical  operations  we 
carried  out  together  I  gained  experience  which,  but  for  the  con- 
fidence and  liberality  of  Mr,  B.,  I  probably  never  should  have 
acquired.  I  am  happy  to  acknowledge  having,  during  our 
labors,  benefited  much  by  his  exquisite  taste  in  the  arts."  * 

Ericsson  was  not  idle  during  the  eighteen  months  interven- 
*  Letter  to  the  editor  of  tUe  London  Builder,  April  23,  1863. 


ERICSSON   IN   ENGLAND.  39 

ing  between  his  arrival  in  England  and  the  acceptance  of  his 
resignation  as  an  officer  of  the  Swedish  army.  Turning  from 
his  Flame  Engine,  he  attempted  to  combine  steam  M-ith  the 
gases  arising  from  the  combustion  of  coal,  and  patented  an 
engine  constructed  on  this  plan.  This  patent  was  assigned  to 
a  fellow-countryman.  Count  Adolph  E.  Yon  Rosen. 

K ext  he  took  a  step  farther  in  the  direction  of  the  future  en- 
gine, and  attached  a  fire-place  nnderneath  a  piston  so  as  to 
actuate  it  by  the  expansion  of  the  air  and  communicate  suction 
to  a  working  piston.  An  engine  on  this  plan  was  patented  and 
a  model  erected  at  Limehouse,  1S27.  A  motive  engine  of  the 
same  general  character  was  also  put  in  operation  at  Limehouse 
in  the  same  year.  In  this  the  fire-place  was  fixed,  at  the  bottom 
of  an  eighteen-inch  cylinder,  and  through  the  fire  air  was  forced 
so  as  to  expand  by  heat  and  at  the  same  time  combine  with  the 
gases  from  combustion.  A  loosely  fitting  piston  moved  up  and 
down  in  this  cylinder  and  set  in  motion  a  sLxteen-inch  working 
cylinder. 

A  difficult  problem  of  mine  draining  presented  itself.  To 
solve  it  Ericsson  invented  and  patented  a  pumping-engine  con- 
sisting of  a  series  of  cisterns  rising  one  above  the  other.  By 
exhausting  the  air  from  these  in  succession  the  water  was  lifted 
to  the  desired  height.  The  patent  for  this  was  taken  out  in  the 
name  of,  and  assigned  to  Charles  Seidler,  who  introduced  the 
first  steamer  on  the  Khine  and  into  whose  family  Ericsson 
afterward  married.  In  1S28  Ericsson  constructed  and  put 
into  successful  operation  at  the  tin  mines  near  Truro,  in  Corn- 
wall, an  air  compressor  having  an  air-cylinder  of  twenty  inches 
diameter  and  five  feet  stroke.  This  operated  a  machine  for 
raising  water  from  a  mine  shaft  situated  off  shore  at  a  con- 
siderable distance  from  the  point  on  the  land  where  the  actuat- 
ing steam-engine  and  compressing  cylinder  were  placed.* 

Upon  this  invention  Ericsson  founded  his  claim  to  priority 
in  the  use  of  compressed  air  for  transmitting  power.  His 
friend.  Count  Yon  Rosen,  showed  his  unbounded  confidence 
in  the  abilities  of  his  young  countryman,  by  investing  £10,000 
in  this  last  invention,  in  the  days  when  fifty  thousand  dollars 
was  no  small  sum. 

*  Letter  of  Ericsson  to  Horace  Daj,  October  13, 1873. 


40  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

Ericsson  accepted  in  the  beginning  the  conchision,  now  uni- 
versal, that  a  substitute  must  be  found  for  the  wasteful  steam- 
engine.  Ilis  studies  by  day  and  his  dreams  by  night  were  oc- 
cupied with  the  problem  as  to  how  he  might  bestow  upon  his 
race  the  priceless  boon  of  a  new  work-compelling  force.  Still, 
the  improvement  and  adaptation  of  the  steam-engine  was  the 
business  immediately  in  hand,  and  this  was  not  neglected. 
In  the  month  signalized  by  the  birth  of  Ericsson  in  Verm- 
land  Robert  Fulton  completed  at  Paris  the  trial  of  his  first  ex- 
perimental steamboat.  In  1819,  while  the  young  Swede  was 
at  work  on  the  Gcita  Canal,  the  Atlantic  was  crossed  for  the 
first  time  by  a  steam  vessel,  the  Savminah,  which  made  a  fly- 
ing visit  to  Stockholm,  where  he  may  have  seen  it.  By  the 
time  he  reached  England  the  steam  fleet  of  Great  Britain  had 
increased  to  two  hundred  vessels,  and  the  promising  field  of 
engineering  enterprise  offered  by  steam  navigation  opened 
before  him.  lie  was  quick  to  perceive  the  deficiencies  of  the 
existing  machinery  and  prompt  in  suggesting  remedies.  To 
hasten  the  sluggish  fires  under  the  boilers  was  a  prime  neces- 
sity. On  this  speed  depended.  A  boiler  was  invented  with  an 
attachment  of  bellows  or  centrifugal  blowers  to  produce  artificial 
draughts.  This  principle  of  artificial  draught  was  patented 
in  England,  in  1828,  a  year  before  Stephenson  made  his  repu- 
tation by  the  application  of  the  same  principle  to  the  Rocket 
in  connection  with  Booth's  tubular  boiler.  The  tubular  prin- 
ciple Ericsson  also  anticipated,  for  his  boiler  contained  twenty 
copper  tubes  and  an  internal  furnace.  It  economized  fuel,  and 
was  so  much  smaller  and  lighter  than  other  boilers  that  new 
applications  of  steam-power  were  made  possible.  Patents  were 
also  taken  out  for  this  in  England,  France,  Sweden,  and  other 
countries. 

An  opportunity  to  test  the  new  boiler  soon  offered  itself. 
In  1827  Captain  John  Iloss,  who  had  made  one  unsuccessful 
attempt  to  discover  a  Korthwest  passage,  endeavored  to  in- 
duce the  British  Government  to  equip  another  expedition  to 
the  Arctic  seas  under  his  command.  Failing  in  this,  he  finally 
persuaded  a  liberal  London  distiller,  Mr.  Felix  Booth,  to  fur- 
nish eighteen  thousand  pounds  to  equip  an  expedition,  Mr. 
Booth  was  subsequently   made   a  baronet   for  his  liberality, 


ERICSSON   IN   ENGLAND.  41 

served  a  term  as  Sheriff  of  London,  and  had  the  honor  of  giv- 
ino-  his  name  to  the  arctic  region  known  as  "  Boothia  Felix." 

An  important  part  of  the  business  of  Braithwaite  &  Erics- 
son at  this  time  was  that  of  constructing  refrigerators  and  cool- 
ers for  the  mammoth  London  breweries  and  distilleries.  This 
brought  them  in  contact  with  Mr.  Booth,  and  through  him 
thej  made  the  acquaintance  of  Captain  Ross,  who  was  fitting 
up  with  new  machinery  an  old  side-wheel  steamer  he  had  pur- 
chased for  his  expedition  and  named  the  Victory.  Ross  fell 
in  love  with  the  new  boiler  and  ordered  one  for  his  vessel,  to 
accompany  a  marine  engine  of  eighty  horse-power.  To  this 
was  applied  a  "surface  condenser"  of  Ericsson's  invention. 
The  success  attending  Ericsson's  efforts  to  condense  steam, 
in  connection  with  his  brewery  and  distillery  experiences,  sug- 
gested the  idea  of  adapting  the  same  machinery  to  steam  ves- 
sels, as  a  substitute  for  the  plan  then  in  vogue  for  cooling 
the  steam  by  discharging  into  it  jets  of  cold  water.  In  his  new 
condenser  the  steam  was  passed  through  a  series  of  horizontal 
copper  tubes,  collected  in  a  boiler  or  evaporator  into  wdiich 
sea  water  was  driven  by  a  force-pump.  This  condenser  was 
operated  upon  the  well-known  principle  that  steam  of  some- 
what less  than  one-half  atmospheric  pressure  will  cause  water 
to  boil  rapidly  in  a  vacuum. 

It  was  almost  impossible  to  keep  the  condensers  then  in  use 
clear  of  water  and  preserve  a  vacuum  in  a  marine  engine,  when 
it  was  moving  slowly  in  heavy  weather,  and  it  was  then,  if  ever, 
that  perfect  action  was  needed.  As  the  ratio  of  condensing 
surface  increased  in  Ericsson's  condenser  in  proportion  as  the 
steam  diminished,  it  was  the  most  efficient  when  the  engine 
slowed  down.  Li  reference  to  this  invention  he  said,  May  16, 
1868,  in  a  private  letter  to  John  Bourne,  the  author  of  a  work 
upon  the  "  Steam  Engine,"  who  applied  to  him  for  information  : 
"  I  claim  to  be  practically  the  inventor  of  surface  condensa- 
tion applied  to  steam  navigation."  Various  methods  of  con- 
densing the  steam  had  been  tried,  but  nothing  had  been  found 
to  supersede  the  plan  of  bringing  the  steam  into  contact  with 
jets  of  water.  Watt,  Cartwright,  Kapier,  Trevithick,  Syming- 
ton, Mills,  and  many  others  in  England  failed  in  the  attempt  to 
apply  the  plan  of  condensing  by  the  application  of  cold  water  to 


42  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSOX. 

the  outside  of  the  vessel  containing  steam.  Mr.  Ilaie,  of  liac- 
ford,  did  finally  succeed,  and  claimed  priority  for  his  invention, 
in  ignorance  of  Ericsson's  successful  application  of  the  prin- 
ciple a  dozen  years  before.  "  The  high-pressure  boilers  of 
the  Victoyy,  said  Ericsson,  "  would  have  been  destroyed  in  a 
single  day  but  for  the  application  of  the  surface  condenser.'' 
"  The  condenser,"  says  John  Scott  Kussell,  "is  the  most  wonder- 
ful part  of  the  marine  engine,  as  indeed  of  the  ordinary  steam- 
engine.  It  is  here  that  the  whole  process  cairied  on  in  the 
boiler  in  so  great  bulk,  and  at  so  much  expense,  is  instantly 
reversed,  and  all  its  laborious  effects  are  at  once  annihilated. 
"Without  a  condenser  of  some  form  the  development  of  the 
steam-engine  would  have  been  impossible."  Ericsson's  conden- 
ser made  it  possible,  also,  to  use  in  steam  navigation  tubular 
boilers,  on  which  so  much  depends. 

Into  the  Yictoi'y  Ericsson  also  introduced  the  plan,  after- 
ward universally  adopted  in  war  vessels,  of  putting  the  machin- 
ery below  the  water-line  to  protect  it  from  shot.  Fearful  of 
being  anticipated,  Koss  concealed  his  intention  of  making  an- 
other voyage  to  the  Arctic  zone.  Ericsson  supposed  he  was  fit- 
ting out  a  vessel  of  war  for  experimental  purposes,  and  "  in 
experimenting,"  as  he  was  accustomed  to  say,  "  complication  is 
not  recrarded,  since  the  intention  irenerallv  is  to  ascertain  facts 
and  effects  never  known,  for  guidance  in  future  practice." 
For  the  purpose  intended  the  machinery  of  the  Yictoi'y  was 
wholly  unsuited,  as  its  designer  well  knew.  Eoss  concluded 
that  its  room  was  better  than  its  company  and  tumbled  it  into 
the  depths  of  the  ^Vrctic  waters,  where  it  may,  in  some  post- 
glacial age,  furnish  proof  that  the  Esquimaux  had  advanced 
ideas  upon  the  subject  of  steam  navigation. 

Eighteen  months  after  his  return  to  England,  in  September, 
1833,  and  six  years  after  the  Victory  sailed,  Sir  John  published 
a  narrative  of  his  voyage,  and  then  Ericsson  for  the  first  time 
learned  that  he  was  most  unfairly  held  responsible  for  the  fail- 
ure of  Itoss's  second  attempt  to  discover  a  Northwest  passage. 
lie  called  his  detractor  to  account  in  a  vigorous  letter,  and  Mr. 
Booth  was  compelled  to  interfere  to  prevent  a  duel  that  threat- 
ened, for  Ericsson  charged  TIoss  with  an  "  utter  forgctfulness  of 
justice  and  candor  "in  dealing  with  him  and  Mr,  Braithwaite. 


EEICSSON   IN  ENGLAND.  43 

To  steam  macliinerj  wholly  unsnited  to  the  purpose  intend- 
ed Captain  Ross  added  further  complications  in  the  shape  of 
gearing  and  paddle-boxes,  described  by  Ericsson  as  "  a  perfect 
specimen  of  ignorance  of  the  laws  which  should  be  consulted  in 
the  construction  of  bodies  intended  to  move  through  water." 
A  specific  contract  had  been  entered  into  as  to  the  amount  of 
power  the  engines  were  to  furnish,  but  when  the  vessel  was  put 
into  the  water  fi-om  the  dry-dock,  she  drew  three  feet  more 
than  was  intended.  Captain  Ross  was  unfair  enough  to  as- 
cribe the  consequent  diminution  of  speed  to  want  of  sufficient 
engine  power,  in  spite  of  the  fact,  obvious  to  every  one,  that 
his  paddle-wheels  were  half  immersed  in  water,  besides  being 
boxed  in  such  a  way  as  to  prevent  a  free  current  to  and  from 
the  wheels,  which  were  themselves  constructed  on  a  false  prin- 
ciple. Undoubtedly  a  great  mistake  was  made  in  fitting  out 
the  Yictory  with  new  and  untried  machinery,  but  this  was  in 
accordance  with  Captain  lioss's  own  orders,  and  he,  and  not 
Ericsson,  was  responsible  for  the  result. 

The  letter  setting  forth  these  facts  appears  to  have  been 
signed  by  Braithwaite,  but  the  rough  draft  of  it  in  Ericsson's 
hand-writing  is  found  among  his  papers,  with  erasures  and 
changes  showing  it  to  be  the  original  document.  Ericsson  was 
accustomed  to  state  his  opinions  with  sufficient  frankness,  espe- 
cially in  his  hot  youth,  and  he  was  by  no  means  reserved  in  his 
characterization  of  what  he  declared  to  be  deceit  practised  by 
Captain  Ross.  After  describing  one  of  his  misrepresentations, 
Ericsson  said :  "  The  deception  had  been  so  well  kept  up  that 
there  was  no  occasion  for  this  fi-esh  lie  to  mislead  us."  This  is 
not  the  kind  of  language  that  captains  in  the  royal  navy  were 
accustomed  to  receive  with  equanimity,  in  the  days  when  Wel- 
lington fought  with  Winchelsea,  and  Benjamin  Disraeli  chal- 
lenged O'Connell,  and  the  other  party  to  the  contention  having 
a  military  reputation  to  sustain  it  is  not  sti-ange  that  this  dis- 
pute should  have  threatened  to  end  in  bloodshed. 

As  soon  as  Messrs.  Braithwaite  &:  Ericsson  learned  the 
purpose  to  which  the  Victory  was  to  be  a])plied,  and  thus  for 
the  first  time  realized  the  mistake  they  had  been  led  into,  they 
exerted  themselves  to  the  utmost  to  correct  her  deficiencies, 
spending   night   after  night  personally   upon    the   vessel,  "to 


44  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

make  good,"  as  Ericsson  said,  "  as  far  as  laj  in  our  power,  the 
baneful  effect  of  the  wanton  deception  practised  upon  us."  They 
also  kept  their  men  at  work  niglit  and  day  at  a  heavy  expense. 
Hence  they  were  naturally  impatient  of  the  charges  of  ''  gross 
neglect  so  freely  brought  against  them  by  Captain  Ross." 

Whatever  the  deficiencies  of  the  Yictonj  as  a  vessel  for 
Arctic  voyaging,  she  marks  a  stage  in  the  development  of  the 
modern  war  vessel,  and  the  ideas  introduced  into  her,  with  the 
intention  of  fitting  her  for  naval  service,  have  since  become 
common  in  the  construction  of  machinery  for  war  ships.  The 
engines  of  the  Yictory  were  at  the  bottom  of  a  frozen  sea,  but 
the  experience  of  the  young  engineer  acquired  in  adapting  them 
to  their  supposed  use  was  of  great  value  to  him  in  his  subse- 
quent career  as  a  naval  constructor. 

The  year  1S2S,  noted  for  the  advancement  made  in  naval 
construction,  was  signalled  by  another  revolutionary  invention 
by  Ericsson.  This  was  the  steam  fire-engine  which  is  now  in  uni- 
versal use,  substituting  machinery  for  the  workers  at  the  polls 
Avho  for  so  many  years  made  the  streets  of  our  principal  cities 
hideous  with  their  noisy  rivalry  and  oftentimes  bloody  con- 
tentions. The  "fire  laddies"  had  certain  prescriptive  rights, 
for  they  were  an  ancient,  if  not  a  time-honored  institution ; 
even  Rome  was  disturbed  in  the  time  of  Pliny  by  the  rivalry 
of  her  various  companies  of  matricxdaril.  Fights  were  com- 
mon among  the  London  firemen  previous  to  the  year  1S30, 
and  the  methods  of  extinguishing  fires  showed  no  great  ad- 
vance upon  the  use  of  the  early  "  divers  squirts  and  petty  en- 
gines to  be  drawn  upon  wheels,  from  place  to  place,  for  to 
quench  Bre  among  buildings."  The  chief  advances  had  been 
in  the  introduction  of  the  air-chamber  in  fire-engines  by  the 
German,  Leupold,  about  1720,  the  adoption  of  the  system  of 
arranfrinf;  two  sets  of  men  on  a  hand-enfjine,  one  above  the 
other,  by  Richard  Xewsham  in  1725,  and  the  use  of  flexible  de- 
livery hose  so  that  the  engines  could  be  removed  far  enough 
from  the  fire  to  prevent  their  being  burned  up,  as  they  fre- 
quently were  before. 

Some  of  the  fire-engines  and  implements  brought  from  Hol- 
land by  King  TVilliam  III.,  when  he  landed  in  Torbay  in  16S8, 
were  in  1S2S  still  to  be  found  in  the  public  buildings  of  Londoa 


ERICSSOlSr   IN   ENGLAND. 


45 


The  engines  of  Ericsson's  time  required  some  sort  of  a  reservoir 
from  whicli  to  suck  the  water,  and  it  was  the  custom  of  the 
London  firemen  to  supply  this  by  tearing  a  great  liole  in  the 
street  to  gather  water,  with  the  necessary  result  of  filling  the 
suction  hose  with  stones  and  dirt. 

Thrice  had  London  been  nearly  destroyed  by  fire,  Astley's 
Theatre  had  been  three  times  burnt,  Drury  Lane,  Covent  Gar- 
den, and  the  Surrey,  each  twice,  and  the  Lyceum  and  Italian 
Opera  once  each.     As  these  conflagrations  were  largely  the  re- 


The  First  Steam  Fire  Engine,  1829. 


suit  of  insufiicient  fire  service,  it  seemed  obvious  to  young 
Ericsson's  enthusiastic  mind  that  a  steam  fire-engine  was  cer- 
tain of  immediate  adoption.  He  first  designed  one  in  1828, 
for  experimental  purposes,  and  it  proved  entirely  successful, 
throwing  jets  of  water,  varying  from  one  inch  to  one  and  one- 
quarter  inch  in  diameter,  to  the  tops  of  the  highest  chimneys 
of  breweries.  Into  this  engine  was  introduced  the  artificial 
draught  boiler,  supplying  the  air  for  combustion  by  the  recip- 
rocating blowing  machine  worked  by  the  engine  when  in  oper- 
ation. 

The  experimental  engine  was  followed  by  another,  mounted 
on  a  light  frame  and  suspended  on  springs,  so  that  it  could  be 


46  LIFE   OF   JOHN   EKICSSON. 

run  over  the  pavements  without  j:ir.  This  too  proved  a  perfect 
success  on  its  first  trial,  and  shortly  after  its  completion  the 
memorable  conflagration  at  the  Argyle  Tlooms  gave  opportunity 
for  proving  in  actual  practice  its  great  superiority  over  the 
enjjines  then  in  use.  The  service  of  the  engine  was  offered  gra- 
tuitously,  and  the  insui^ance  companies  showed  their  apprecia- 
tion of  the  courtesy  by  presenting  Mr.  Braithwaite's  men  with 
the  magnificent  testimonial  of  one  savereign.  The  night  was 
cold  and  the  hand-engines  became  quickly  frozen  up  and  use- 
less, but  the  steamer  worked  incessantly  for  five  hours  with- 
out a  hitch,  throwing  its  stream  clear  over  the  dome  of  the 
building. 

Another  opportunity  for  testing  the  fire-engine  occurred 
soon  after,  wdien  Barclay's  brewery  was  burned  and  Ericsson's 
engine  was  borrowed  and  kept  at  work  day  and  night  for  a 
month,  without  interruption,  pumping  and  starting  the  beer 
from  the  difi^erent  vats  in  the  establishment.  It  was  after- 
ward taken  on  a  sort  of  starring  tour  to  France,  where  it  was 
used  with  great  success  in  several  towns,  and  from  there  to 
Bussia,  where  similar  results  followed  its  trial. 

A  third  engine  was  built  for  the  Liverpool  Docks,  and 
used  for  many  years  in  extinguishing  fires  and  in  other  opera- 
tions requiring  the  pumping  of  large  quantities  of  water.  A 
fourth,  of  beautiful  construction,  called  the  Cornet^  was  built 
for  the  King  of  Prussia  in  1S32,  and  Berlin  was  the  first  con- 
tinental city  to  supply  this  means  of  extinguishing  fires. 

The  fire-engine  made  by  Braithwaite  ct  Ericsson,  with  its 
substitution  of  steam  for  liand  power,  was  the  first  distinct  de- 
parture in  principle  from  the  engines  in  use,  in  one  form  and 
another,  at  various  periods  since  the  beginning.  The  oldest 
fire-engine  of  which  we  have  any  account  is  described  by  Hero 
in  his  "  Spiritalia,''  B.C.  150,  and  the  description  answers  very 
well  for  the  ordinary  form  of  hand-engine  displaced  by  the 
steam-engine.  This  early  engine  had  the  air-chambers  and  two 
single  acting  pumps,  worked  by  a  beam  moved  by  brakes  and 
uniting  their  two  streams  in  a  common  discharge,  connected 
with  a  nozzle  capable  of  being  turned  in  any  direction. 

"When  an  American  hand-engine  was  first  taken  to  rt)nstan- 
tinople,  numy  years  ago,  the  Pasha  viewed  its  performance  with 


ERICSSON   IN   ENGLAND.  47 

admiration,  but  exclaimed  at  the  end,  '•  Masliallah  !  very  good, 
but  it  will  require  a  sea  to  supply  it  with  water.  It  won't  do 
for  us,  for  there  is  no  sea  in  the  middle  of  the  city."  So  he 
decided  to  continue  the  use  of  his  squirts,  and  to  follow  the  re- 
ceived method  of  letting  the  fire  spread  until  the  wind  changed 
or  it  could  find  nothing  more  to  destroy.  A  similar  objection 
was  raised  to  Ericsson's  invention,  known  from  the  manufact- 
urer as  "  Braithwaite's  engine."  Speaking  of  it,  an  authority 
says :  "  The  engine  of  Mr.  Braithwaite,  although  most  success- 
ful in  its  working  and  adaptability  to  the  purpose  to  which  it 
was  designed,  met  with  the  usual  opposition  which  all  really 
useful  or  important  introductions  seem  destined  to  encounter, 
and  his  proposals  for  bringing  them  into  general  use  in  Lon- 
don met  with  the  most  determined  hostility.  First,  it  was 
urged  that  to  be  good  for  anything  it  must  constantly  have  a 
fire  alight  or  the  steam  kept  up,  as  it  would  otherwise  take  too 
long  to  bring  it  into  operation  ;  then  it  was  '  too  powerful  for 
common  use,  too  heavy  for  rapid  travelling,  and  required  larger 
supplies  of  water  than  could  be  obtained  in  London  streets.' 
This  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Ericsson's  engine  had  worked  for 
five  hours  at  the  Argyle  fire  when  the  other  engines  were  frozen 
up.  Even  if  the  steam  fire-engines  '  could  get  water,'  it  would 
not  be  desirable  to  use  them,  as  the  quantity  of  water  thrown 
by  them  might  be  injuriously  applied  and  cause  mischief. 
In  short,  the  managers  of  the  fire  brigade  declined  to  en- 
tertain Mr.  Braithwaite's  proposals,  and  their  servants  perpe- 
trated every  possible  annoyance  toward  Mr.  Braithwaite  when 
they  met  him  with  his  engine  at  fires,  which  he  for  a  long  time 
attended  gratuitously,  so  that  ultimately  he  withdrew  in  dis- 
gust from  the  new  field  in  which  he  had  hoped  to  have  both 
profitably  and  usefully  employed  his  talents  and  resources."  * 

Steam-power  for  extinguishing  fires  was  in  use  in  manufac- 
turing establishments  before  it  was  employed  in  portable  ma- 
chines, every  factory  of  "any  pretensions  having  its  steam- 
driven  pump  with  hose  and  other  attachments. 

A  floating  steam  fire-engine,  having  the  speed  of  nine  miles 
an  hour,  was  designed  in  1S35  for  the  London  Fire-engine  Es- 

*  Young :  Fires,  Fire-engines,  and  Fire  Brigades.     (The  author  acknowl- 
edges his  indebtedness  to  this  work  lor  many  of  the  facts  given  here.) 


48  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

tablisliment,  but  a  land  steam  fire-engine  was  used  by  them  for 
the  first  time  in  July,  1S60,  in  one  of  the  back  streets  of  Doc- 
tors Commons.  "  In  point  of  '  efficiency,  simplicity,  durability 
of  parts,  weight,  and  cost,'  it  was  in  no  respects  superior  to  Mr. 
Braithwaite's  [Ericsson's]  steam  fire-engine  of  1S29,  while  in 
some  respects  it  was  inferior  to  it.  In  a  report  to  the  commit- 
tee, the  superintendent  of  the  brigade  admitted  that  this  en- 
gine required  delicate  handling ;  and  so  unsatisfactory  upon 
the  whole  was  its  performance  that  at  the  end  of  ten  months' 
trial  it  was  withdrawn  and  replaced  by  one  of  a  different 
construction,  bearing  a  close  resemblance  to  that  of  Mr.  Braith- 
waite." 

This  claim  for  Ericsson  of  the  invention  of  what  has  been 
extensively  known  as  Braithwaite's  steam  fire-engine  is  made 
upon  Captain  Ericsson's  distinct  declaration  that  it  was  built 
from  his  designs,  as  well  as  upon  other  authority.  In  a  state- 
ment appearing  in  the  London  Engineer^  December  31,  1S75, 
he  said :  "  Having  originated,  elaborated,  and  perfected  a  new 
system,  I  claim  to  be  the  father  of  steam  fire-engines ;  cheer- 
fully admitting  that  but  for  the  confidence  and  liberality  of  my 
friend  and  patron,  John  Braithwaite,  it  would  not  have  been  in 
my  power  to  carry  my  plans  into  practice."  This  refers  to  the 
experimental  engine  and  the  one  first-  built  from  its  design. 
Continuing,  Ericsson  says  further :  "  I  designed  two  other  steam 
fire-engines  ordered  from  Braithwaite's  establishment  about  the 
same  time  ;  one  for  the  Liverpool  Docks  and  one  for  the  Prus- 
sian Government." 

In  his  contest  with  the  London  Fire  Brigade  Ericsson  ap- 
pears to  have  had  his  first  introduction  to  the  official  inertia 
and  prejudice  he  was  destined  to  become  further  acquainted 
with  during  his  long  career  of  invention.  "  Prejudice  was 
never  reasoned  into  a  man,  and  for  that  reason  can  never  be 
reasoned  out  of  him." 


CHAPTER  ly. 

OPENING   OF   THE   EKA   OF   LOCOMOTIVE  ENGINEERING. 

Aristocratic  Prejudice  against  Railroads. — Stephenson's  Contest  with 
Philistine  England. — The  Liverpool  &  Manchester  Railroad  offers 
a  Prize. — The  Ai'gument  for  and  against  the  Locomotive  Engine. — 
The  Rainhill  Trial  of  1829. — Stephenson's  Rocket  and  Ericsson's 
N'ovelty.  —  The  Novelty  shoots  by  the  Rocket  like  a  Projectile. — A 
Mile  in  Fifty-six  Seconds.  —  Steam  Power  Supersedes  Muscle. — 
Public  Excitement. — A  New  Era  Inaugurated. 

IIST  1798,  when  Lord  Campbell  went  up  to  London  to  seek  his 
fortune,  he  was  the  subject  of  anxious  apprehension  on  the 
part  of  his  relatives  because  of  the  speed  with  which  he  was  to 
travel  by  stage.  The  distance  of  three  hundred  miles  between 
Edinburgh  and  the  capital  was  made  in  sixty  hours,  and  stories 
were  rife  of  deaths  by  apoplexy,  as  the  result  of  travelling  at 
this  alarming  rate  of  five  or  six  miles  an  hour.  During  the 
quarter  of  a  century  following  Lord  Campbell's  journey  there 
was  some  increase  on  even  this  remarkable  rate  of  speed. 
Twenty  thousand  miles  of  turnpike  had  been  constructed  in 
England  previous  to  the  date  of  Ericsson's  transfer  there  in  182G 
and  £2,200,000  had  been  expended  upon  them  to  increase  the 
possibilities  of  land  carriage. 

Advance  in  tliis  direction  had  reached  its  limit.  Light  ve- 
hicles, mounted  on  springs  and  speeding  over  the  perfect  high- 
ways of  Macadam  had  gradually  replaced  the  pack-horses  and 
rude  carriages  of  a  hundred  years  before.  Great  attention  had 
been  paid  to  improving  the  breed  of  carriage-horses,  and  seven, 
eight,  and  even  ten  miles  per  hour  were  common  with  passenger 
coaches.  The  Quicksilver  Mail  to  Falmouth  made  eleven  miles 
an  hour,  including  stoppages,  and  even  seventeen  miles  an  hour 
were  obtained  for  a  short  stage  with  the  Shrewsbury  coaches 
over  the  exceptional  route  between  Cheltenham  and  Tewksbury, 

The  three  thousand  miles  of  canal  in  England  had  relieved 

4 


60  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

to  some  extent  the  demand  for  heavy  carriage,  and  suggestions 
of  a  coming  revohition  were  found  in  tlie  development  of  the 
system  of  tramways  employed  in  the  coal  districts  of  Newcastle 
where  George  Stephenson  served  his  apprenticeship  and 
gained  experience  in  engine  construction.  These  had  been  in 
use  for  a  century  and  a  half,  or  since  the  time  when  Master 
Beaumont,  a  gentleman  of  "great  ingenuity  and  rare  parts," 
liad  expended  his  fortune  of  £30,000  in  substituting  for  the 
ancient  "  waynes"  "  waggons  "running on  these  parallel  ways  of 
timber.  But  no  one  dreamed  of  the  great  changes  involved  in 
the  use  of  steam  as  a  means  of  traction.  As  to  the  general 
public,  it  ridiculed  in  its  wisdom  the  idea  of  exceeding  the  speed 
of  the  quick  passenger  coaches.  Philistine  England  combined 
its  strength  to  defeat  the  projects  of  the  engine-driver  from 
Ivillingworth  colliery,  with  his  wild  plans  for  carrying  freight 
at  the  rate  of  twelve  or  fifteen  miles  an  hour.  Ilis  idea  of  a 
tramway  laid  to  a  uniform  grade  over  hill  and  valley,  instead 
of  following  the  sinuosities  of  the  ground,  was  bitterly  opposed, 
and  the  most  alarming  prophecies  were  in  vogue  concerning 
the  danger  attending  his  plans. 

As  early  as  1749  Watt  had  suggested  the  idea  of  applying 
steam  power  to  passenger  coaches  travelling  over  the  common 
roads,  and  various  attempts  had  been  made  to  realize  this  con- 
ception. Experience  at  the  collieries  had  shown  the  possibili- 
ties of  moving  heavy  wagons  on  tramways  with  stationary 
engines,  but  a  great  contention  had  arisen  over  the  suggestion 
that  it  was  feasible  to  use  locomotives  on  such  roads,  while  the 
best  engineers  in  England,  Ericsson  included,  were  seeking 
some  means  of  overcoming  the  supposed  want  of  adhesion  be- 
tween the  wheels  and  the  rails.  A  learned  advocate  expended 
his  eloquence  before  a  committee  of  Parliament  ridiculing  the 
idea  of  going  "  at  the  rate  of  twelve  miles  an  hour  with  the 
aid  of  the  devil  in  the  form  of  a  locomotive,  sitting  as  postil- 
ion on  the  fore  horse."  To  his  own  satisfaction  this  man  of 
law  proved  that  a  gale  of  wind  "  would  render  it  impossible  to 
set  off  a  locomotive  engine  either  by  poking  the  fire  or  keeping 
up  of  the  steam  until  the  boiler  was  ready  to  burst." 

It  is  difiicult  now  to  realize  the  extent  of  the  prejudice  then 
existing   in   England   against  railroads,  especially  among  the 


THE   ERA   OF   LOCOMOTIVE   ENGINEEEING.  61 

classes  whose  interests  fortified  their  prejudices.  Aristocratic 
sentiment  was  long  arrayed  against  a  mode  of  conveyance 
bringing  noble  and  peasant  to  a  common  level ;  even  after  suc- 
cess was  assured  English  fashion  clung  to  its  earlier  and  less 
convenient  mode  of  locomotion  simply  because  its  abandonment 
by  the  vulgar  made  it  more  exclusive,  as  it  still  clings  to  its  wax- 
candles  to  the  exclusion  of  gas. 

The  Duke  of  Wellington  refused  to  trust  himself  upon  a 
railroad  until  the  year  1843,  and  went  then  only  because  he 
was  in  attendance  upon  the  Queen,  who  the  year  before  fol- 
lowed the  example  of  Prince  Albert  in  making  use  of  this  con- 
veyance between  London  and  Windsor.  The  favored  of  for- 
tune always  have  a  keen  appreciation  of  the  menace  to  their 
privileges  involved  in  radical  changes  of  any  sort  in  existing 
conditions.  In  this  case  they  appear  to  have  had  a  particularly 
lively  premonition  of  the  revolution  to  follow  the  success  of  the 
Yorkshire  engineer.  The  peers  of  England  as  landowners,  and 
the  classes  they  represented  or  influenced,  were  among  the  chief 
opponents  of  the  raih-oad  projects.  "  Journeys  at  that  time," 
says  James  John  Garth  Wilkinson,  "  were  restricted  to  a  small 
portion  of  the  community.  The  more  the  coaches  were  per- 
fected, and  the  better  horsed,  the  more  expensive  and  select  they 
became.  How  shall  we  popularize  travelling  ?  By  a  viler  ex- 
pedient of  canals,  carts,  and  the  like  ?  This,  too,  existed,  but  it 
was  used  merely  for  necessity,  and  did  not  attract,  or  make  all 
men  into  travellers.  To  effect  the  better  result  an  invention 
grander  and  cheaper  than  had  then  traversed  space  was  required. 
To  move  the  rich  needed  only  a  four-horse  coach,  running  in 
an  agony  of  ten  miles  an  hour ;  but  to  move  the  poor  required 
cars  before  which  those  of  the  triumphing  Csesars  must  pale 
their  ineffectual  competition.  Thus,  though  the  problem  was 
the  enfranchisement  of  the  meaner  classes  from  the  fetters  of 
pedestrianism,  yet  the  only  solution  of  it  lay  in  the  increased 
convenience  of  all  ranks,  from  the  noble  to  the  peasant,  and  not 
in  the  degradation  but  in  the  elevation  of  the  locomotive  art."  * 

The  early  projectors  of  railroads  intended  them  for  goods 
transport ;  especially  for  carrying  ore  a  short  distance  from  the 
mines.  They  did  not  realize  tlie  possibilities  of  passenger  traffic  ; 

*  Wilkinson's  Human  Body  and  its  Connection  with  Man,  pp.  12,  13. 


52  LIFE  OF   JOHN   ERICSSOlSr. 

these  revealed  themselves  only  when  rapid  motion  was  assured 
and  in  this  revelation  it  was  the  fortune  of  John  Ericsson  to 
play  a  most  conspicuous  part.  lie  was  at  work  on  his  marine 
boiler,  and  fighting  adverse  public  sentiment  with  his  steam 
fire  engine,  while  the  Stephensons  were  bringing  to  a  success 
ful  issue  the  great  scheme  of  a  railroad  between  Liverpool  and 
Manchester.  The  appearance  of  the  prospectus  of  this  rail- 
road in  a  volume  labelled  "  Some  of  the  Bubbles  of  1S25," 
and  found  in  one  of  the  public  libraries,  shows  how  this  project 
was  then  regarded. 

The  elder  Stephenson,  who  was  the  engineer  of  the  railroad, 
was  an  earnest  advocate  of  locomotives,  and  argued  strenuously 
against  the  project  of  using  stationary  engines  to  draw  the  cars 
from  station  to  station.  The  possibilities  of  such  engines  were 
limited  to  the  carrying  of  forty  tons  of  coal  at  the  rate  of  six 
miles  an  hour.  Stephenson  urged  that  ten  miles  could  be  ob- 
tained with  the  locomotive,  and  in  the  hidden  recesses  of  his 
own  mind  cherished  the  thought  of  twenty  miles.  lie  did  not 
dare  express  it,  for  fear  of  still  further  increasing  the  prejudice 
against  his  plans. 

Upon  the  decision  of  this  question  of  power  turned  the 
whole  future  of  railroad  development,  as  the  result  has  shown. 
After  much  painstaking  investigation  the  railroad  officials 
yielded  to  Stephenson's  solicitations,  and  resolved  to  make  a 
trial  of  the  locomotive  engine  in  spite  of  the  baleful  prophe- 
cies concerning  it.  An  advertisement  was  issued  offering  a 
prize  of  five  hundred  pounds  for  the  best  locomotive  adapted  to  a 
road  of  5  feet  8^  inch  gauge,  capable  of  drawing  a  gross  weight 
of  twenty  tons  at  the  rate  of  ten  miles  an  hour,  and  conforming 
to  certain  stipulations.  It  must  consume  its  own  smoke,  accord- 
ing to  the  provisions  of  the  railway  act,  and  its  limit  of  weight 
was  fixed  at  six  tons.  The  learned  Government  Inspector  of  the 
Post  Office  Steam  Packets  pronounced  the  men  who  prescribed 
this  impossible  condition  of  ten  miles  an  hour  "a  set  of  char- 
latans," and  offered  a  breakfast  on  a  stewed  engine-wheel  in 
case  their  requirements  were  met.*     Kot  a  single  eminent  pro- 

*  For  many  of  the  facts  given  thus  far  in  this  chapter  I  am  indebted  to 
Smiles's  Life  of  George  and  Robert  Stephenson,  which  is,  however,  truth- 
fully  described   by  Knight's   American   Mechanical   Dictionary   as    "  ignor- 


THE   EKA   OF   LOCOMOTIVE   ENGINEERITSTG.  53 

fessional  man  sided  with  Stephenson  in  his  preference  for  loco- 
motives, and  public  opinion  was  greatly  excited  over  the  dangers 
supposed  to  attend  this  novel  system.  .  When  Parliament  had 
been  applied  to  for  a  charter  for  the  Liverpool  &  Manchester 
road,  great  care  had  been  taken  to  avoid  the  suggestion  of  lo- 
comotives, and  the  discussion  before  the  committee  was  as  to 
the  possibilities  of  traction  on  a  railroad  by  horse-power.  The 
biographer  of  C.  B.  Vignoles,  who  was  principal  resident  en- 
gineer of  the  road  from  1825  to  1827,  says:  "There  can  be  no 
doubt  it  would  have  risked  the  success  of  the  bill  if  the  pro- 
moters had  laid  any  stress  on  the  possibility  of  steam  becom- 
ing the  traction  agent."  * 

Five  months  were  allowed  for  completing  the  engines,  yet 
it  was  only  by  a  bare  chance  that  Ericsson  was  able  to  enter 
the  contest,  for  only  seven  weeks  of  the  twenty-two  remained 
when  he  learned  of  the  competition  and  commenced  work  on 
his  engine.  He  had  never  built  a  locomotive ;  Stephenson  had 
been  for  five  years  at  the  head  of  an  establishment  for  the  man- 
ufacture of  such  locomotives  as  were  then  in  use  on  the  colliery 
tramways  ;  he  had  made  a  special  study  of  this  form  of  engine, 
and  he  enjoyed  the  further  advantage  of  controlling  the  road 
ordering  the  trial  and  had  the  sympathy  and  support  of  its  offi- 
cials. He  was  thoroughly  equipped  for  the  contest,  and  before 
Ericsson  began  work  had  substantially  completed  his  trial  en- 
gine with  the  assistance  of  his  son  Robert,  a  vouno;  engineer  of 
Ericsson's  own  age,  twenty-six.  The  Stephensons  were  able  to 
test  their  engine  in  actual  practice  on  the  Killingworth  Rail- 
road, and  to  correct  defects  that  would  have  been  fatal  to  suc- 
cess on  the  day  of  the  trial. 

Describing  the  occasion,  Mr.  Booth  says :  f 

The  intense  interest  excited  by  the  offer  of  this  premium  was  almost 
unparalleled.     The  friends  of  Locomotive  Engines  hailed  it  as  an  era 

ing  facts  and  pettifogging  the  whole  case ;  about  as  one-sided  an  affair  as 
Abbott's  Life  of  Saint  Xapoleon."  This  is  certainly  true,  so  far  as  concerns 
Smiles's  meagre  reference  to  Ericsson's  part  in  the  Rainhill  contest. 

*Life  of  Charles  Blacker  Vignoles,  by  his  son,  p.  111.  Longmans,  Green 
&  Co.  1889. 

f  Account  of  Liverpool  &  Manchester  Railway,  by  Henry  Booth,  Treasurer 
to  the  Company,  p.  101.     Philadelphia,  1831. 


54  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON". 

■which  was  to  create  one  of  the  greatest  changes  in  the  internal  commn- 
nications  of  the  kingdom  that  had  ever  vet  taken  place.  The  canal  pro- 
prietors dreaded  lest  the  issue  of  these  trials  should  prove  that  a  more 
economical  mode  of  conveyance  might  be  established  ;  and  the  pro- 
jectors of  the  Railway  viewed  the  experiment  as  one  calculated  to  mako 
that  grand  work  profitable  to  themselves  and  beneficial  to  the  country, 
or  show  to  them  what  an  immense  expenditure  had  been  incurred  which 
might  otherwise  have  been  avoided. 

The  public  were  not  idle  spectators ;  they  considered  that  the  suc- 
cessful termination  would  not  only  confer  individual  benefits  and  local 
advantages,  but  a  great  national  good,  by  introducing  a  system  of  con- 
veyance throughout  the  country  which  is  at  once  easy,  safe,  expeditious, 


<mr 


Rocket  "  Locomotive. 


and  economical,  affording  to  the  jDoor  a  luxury  hitherto  denied  to  them, 
and  to  the  opulent  a  despatch  which  hitherto  no  sum  could  purchase. 

The  conditions  required  a  run  of  seventy  miles,  but  when 
the  day  for  the  contest  came,  the  only  portion  of  the  railroad 
completed  was  a  level  stretch  of  about  two  miles  at  a  little  place 
called  Rainhill.  The  competing  locomotives  were  compelled, 
therefore,  to  cover  their  distance  by  making  twenty  trips  back 
and  forth  over  one  and  three-quarter  miles  of  track.  Five  en- 
gines entered  for  the  trial  at  Itainhill.  Three  were  of  little  ac- 
count. The  only  one  whicli  disputed  for  the  supremacy  with 
Stephenson's  Rocket^  was  Ericsson's  Novelty.  Minor  defects 
in  its  workmanship,  such  as  Stephenson  had  every  opportunity 
to  detect  and  correct,  prevented  the  Novelty  from  completing 


THE   ERA    OF   LOCOMOTIVE   ENGINEERING.  55 

the  required  distance.  So  Stephenson  was  the  only  one  who 
strictly  conformed  to  the  conditions,  and  the  prize  was  awarded 
to  him. 

According  to  contemporary  accounts,  however,  the  succes 
cfesfiine  was  with  Ericsson.  His  singularly  quick  comprehen- 
sion of  the  problem  before  him,  and  his  masterly  control  of  its 
conditions  were  shown  in  his  ability  to  enter  such  a  contest 
with  so  little  time  for  preparation,  and  no  time  for  experiment. 
Previous  experience  with  the  Victory,  and  with  his  steam  fire- 
engine  no  doubt  led  up  to  this  result.  In  both  of  these  he  used 
artificial  draught,  which  is  the  essential  factor  in  the  produc- 
tion of  high  speed,  increasing  heat  in  the  furnace  as  the  black- 
smith does  in  his  forge  with  his  bellows.  Without  this  the 
modern  locomotive  would  be  an  impossibility. 

To  whom  belongs  the  credit  of  first  inventing  what  is  known 
as  the  steam-blast  does  not  appear.  It  is  certain  that  its  value, 
indeed  its  absolute  necessity,  in  locomotives  constructed  for 
speed,  was  never  understood  until  the  Rainhill  contest  made  it 
clear.  Ericsson's  previous  use  of  this  means  of  creating  power 
with  the  least  expenditure  of  grate  surface,  and  corresponding 
compactness  of  construction,  shows  his  thorough  appreciation 
of  its  importance. 

In  an  article  on  the  "  Civil  Engineers  of  Britain,"  in  Black- 
wood's Magazine  for  October,  1879,  we  are  told  that :  "  There 
are  various  claimants  for  the  honor  of  the  invention,  which 
proved  to  be  the  very  vital  breath  of  the  locomotive,  the  steam- 
blast,  and  the  actual  discovery,  not  of  the  method  itself,  but 
of  its  prodigious  efficacy,  seems  to  have  taken  Stephenson  as 
much  as  anyone  else  by  surprise  at  the  experiments  at  Rainhill, 
in  1829.  On  the  first  day  of  her  trial  the  RocTcet  derived  but 
little  benefit  from  the  discharge  of  the  exhaust  steam  up  the 
chimney,  and,  indeed,  made  steam  nearly  as  freely  when  stand- 
ing as  when  running.  The  mean  speed  kept  up  by  the  engine 
was  under  14,  and  the  maximum  24  miles  an  hour.  "Without  any 
load  a  velocity  of  29^  miles  an  hour  was  attained.  Ericsson's 
engine,  the  Novelty,  shot  by  the  RocTcet  like  a  projectile  ;  but 
the  workmanship  was  not  equal  to  that  of  the  stout  iSTorthum- 
brian,  though  the  scientific  condition  of  the  Novelty  was  proba- 
bly of  a  more  advanced  order.     Had  the  workmanship  been  as 


£6  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

strong  as  the  design  was  original,  the  prize  would  have  been 
won  bj  the  Novelty,  and  the  early  history  of  railways  would 
have  assumed  a  different  complexion.  After  the  trials,  the  two 
exhaust  orifices  of  the  Rocket  were  thrown  into  one,  and  so 
contracted  that  the  exhaust  steam  produced  a  powerful  blast 
in  the  chimney.  The  results  were  such  as  to  indicate  the  full 
value  of  this  mode  of  developing  heat." 

Edward  Alfred  Cowper,  a  member  of  the  Institution  of 
Civil  Engineers,  said  in  1884-,*  of  the  Novelty :  "It  was  a  very 
light  engine,  and  would  not  draw  a  heavy  load,  and  the  flue 
gave  way  several  times,  but  I  think  it  due  to  the  memory  of 
my  old  master,  John  Braithwaite,  to  state  that  it  was  the  first 
"engine  that  ever  ran  really  fast,  as  it  did  a  mile  in  fifty-six 
seconds." 

Sir  Charles  Fox,  afterward  the  engineer  of  the  London 
Crystal  Palace,  was  at  that  time  a  young  man  in  the  employ  of 
Ericsson,  to  whom  he  was  indebted  for  his  first  start  in  life. 
He  was  on  the  Novelty  when  it  shot  by  the  Rocket,  and  never, 
he  was  wont  to  say,  could  he  forget  the  expression  on  the  face 
of  Robert  Stephenson  at  the  moment.f 

Speaking  of  this  trial,  Frazers  Magazine  said,  in  1881: 
"  For  the  first  time  the  shrill  whistle  of  the  locomotive  was 
heard  in  Middlesex.  Few  were  the  spectators,  for  the  trial  was 
essentially  a  practical  experiment ;  but  the  faces  of  wonder  and 
dismay  with  which  they  beheld  the  advancing,  the  self-moving 
machine  were  not  to  be  forgotten.  As  the  engine  gained  her 
breath,  and  with  the  sharp  sigh,  or  rather  snort,  now  so  fa- 
miliar to  our  ears,  rapidly  attained  the  speed  of  thirty  miles  an 
hour,  the  anxious  lines  on  the  face  of  the  great  engineer  relaxed. 
By  the  time  of  the  return  to  Kilburn  it  was  clear  that  the  en- 
gines designed  for  the  London  &  Birmingham  traffic  would 
answer  the  expectations  of  the  engineer." 

The  defects  of  Ericsson's  engine  were  such  as  might  be 
expected  in  a  construction  put  at  once  to  the  test  without  pre- 
vious experiment.  These  defects  were  all  easy  of  correction 
had  opportunity  offered.  But  time  did  not  allow,  and  Erics- 
son was  ev^en  obliged  to  ask  for  a  delay,  to  adjust  the  wheels 

*  Heat  and  its  Mechanical  Applications,  p.  73. 
\  Blackwood's  Magazine,  p.  37.     July,  1889. 


THE   ERA   OF   LOCOMOTIVE   ENGINEERING. 


57 


of  his  engine  to  the  track,  for  it  had  never  been  on  the  rails 
before.  He  always  claimed  the  credit  of  being  the  first  to 
demonstrate  the  error  of  the  then  received  opinion  that  exten- 
sive surface  must  be  exposed  to  the  fire  to  secure  the  necessary 
amount  of  steam.  His  little  Novelty^  with  its  compact  machin- 
ery, was  a  revelation  as  to  the  possibilities  of  steam,  yet  nei- 
ther for  Stephenson  nor  for  Ericsson  is  to  be  claimed  the  exclu- 
sive credit  for  that  memorable  day  at  Rainhill.     As  Stephen- 


^!t6»*«>MfV*-«»-V 


•^-«>~'~-.„,t,/^ 


The  Novelty  Locomotive,  built  by  Ericsson  to  compete  with  Stephenson's  Rocket,  1829. 


son  has  himself  said :  "  The  locomotive  is  not  the  product  of 
any  single  man,  but  of  a  nation  of  engineers." 

If  he  spoke  critically  of  Stephenson's  engine  Ericsson  al- 
ways refrained  from  attacking  Stephenson  personally,  content- 
ing himself  with  defending  his  own  invention  when  unfair 
comparisons  M-ere  made.  "  As  to  George  Stephenson,"  he  once 
instructed  his  secretary  to  say  in  reply  to  a  letter,  "  the  Cap- 
tain refrains  from  doing  anything  calculated  to  tarnish  the 
fame  of  that  truly  great  engineer." 


68  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

Neither  Ericsson  nor  bis  friends  were  satisfied  with  the  jns- 
tice  of  the  decision  against  him  at  Eainhill,  so  far  as  it  assumed 
to  decide  as  to  the  merits  of  the  rival  engines.  This  decision 
was  in  part  due  to  the  bastj  action  of  the  hot-blooded  young 
Swede,  in  withdrawing  the  JVovelti/  from  the  contest.  In  a 
manuscript  left  by  Ericsson,  he  savs  : 

It  is  very  surprising  tliat  the  several  writers  on  railway  locomotion 
have  overlooked  the  fact  that  the  Xorelti/  contained  the  essential  prop- 
erties indispensable  to  success,  while  the  Rocket,  which  took  the  pre- 
mium, lacked  those  very  properties.  A  glance  at  these  locomotive 
machines  as  fii-st  jDlaced  on  the  Liverpool  i:  Manchester  Railway  shows 
that  the  constructor  of  the  former  had  grasped  the  subject  and  that  the 
constructor  of  the  latter  had  not. 

Ericsson,  duly  appreciating  the  necessity  of  protecting  the  mechan- 
ism from  shaking  and  jar  on  the  rail,  suspended  the  entire  framework, 
boilers  and  engines,  on  springs  of  the  most  perfect  elasticity ;  but  in 
doing  this  he  did  not,  Hke  Stephenson,  overlook  the  fact  that  unless  the 
power  of  the  engines  be  applied  to  cranks  on  the  axle  of  the  driving- 
wheels  in  a  horizontal  direction,  the  action  of  the  springs  would  be  in- 
terrupted and  counteracted.  Consequently  the  Xorelti/,  actuated  by 
horizontal  connecting-rods  moved  along  the  road  with  perfect  steadiness 
while  the  Rocket,  with  her  diagonal  connecting-rods  had  a  violent  racking 
motion  from  side  to  side.  Mr.  Hackworth's  Sans  Pareil,  with  her  verti- 
cal connecting-rods,  proved  worse  even  than  the  Rocket,  in  fact  did  not 
admit  of  springs  of  sufficient  elasticity  to  be  of  any  utility. 

But  a  far  more  important  feature  in  the  constmction  of  the  Xorelty 
claims  attention.  Ericsson,  duly  estimating  the  insufficiency  of  chim- 
ney-draught, provided  his  engine  with  artificial  means  for  supporting  the 
combustion  in  the  boiler  furnace.  A  blowing  machine  was  applied, 
moved  directly  by  the  engine,  so  that  the  supply  of  air  was  greatest 
when  the  engine  -worked  at  maximum  speed.  Stephenson,  on  the  other 
hand,  depended  on  the  chimney-draught.  True,  a  discovery  was  made 
by  Mr.  Hackworth,  during  the  trials  at  Kainhill,  that  the  admission  of 
steam  into  the  chimney  in  a  peculiar  way  produced  a  powerful  draught. 
But  this  principle  of  artificial  draught  did  not  enter  into  the  original 
construction  of  the  Rocket,  while  the  plan  of  the  Xorelly  was  wholly  based 
on  that  principle.     In  fact,  no  chimney  at  all  was  applied. 

Ericsson  has  been  justly  censured  for  withdrawing  the  Xorelti/  from 
the  contest  in  the  absence  of  his  friend  John  Bi-aithwaite,  to  whose  liber- 
ality, keen  mechanical  perceptions  and  enterprise  the  directors  of  the 
Liverpool  &  Manchester  Railway  were  indebted  for  the  benefit  conferred 
on  their  great  undertaking  at  the  time  by  the  performance  of  the 
Xorelty.  It  is  difficult  to  see  how,  if  the  contest  had  not  been  aban- 
doned, the  judges  could  have  refused  awarding  the  jjrize  to  the  Xorelty, 


THE   ERA   OF   LOCOMOTIVE   ENGINEERING.  59 

in  view  of  her  greater  speed  than  the  other  competing  engines,  and  in 
view  of  her  superior  principle  of  construction  compared  with  the  Rocket. 

In  reply  to  an  inquiry   from  Mr.  C.  H.  Haswell,  Ericsson 
said  (February  2,  1875) : 

Mt  Deab  HasweuCj  :  As  far  as  I  know  the  boiler  of  the  Novelty,  as  well 
as  the  boilers  which  I  designed  for  the  steamship  Victory,  1828,  were  the 
first  in  which  the  furnace  with  its  suiTounding  water  space  was  placed  be- 
low the  horizontal  part  of  the  boiler  which  contained  the  flues.  The  pres- 
ent locomotive  boiler,  as  well  as  the  boilers  of  Steiahenson's  engines  built 
1830,  are,  with  reference  to  the  point  mentioned,  copies  of  my  originals  of 
1828.  The  boiler  of  Stephenson's  Rocket,  1829,  it  should  be  observed,  had 
a  separate  fire-box  secured  to  the  horizontal  part  or  flue  boiler,  the  water 
surrounding  the  furnace  circulating  through  pii^es  connected  with  the 
said  flue  boiler.  Yours  truly, 

J.  Ericsson. 

Stephenson  ran  the  whole  distance  without  the  carriage 
containing  his  water-tank,  an  essential  part  of  his  outfit,  and 
with  the  water  in  the  boiler  raised  to  the  maximum  tempera- 
ture. This  offended  Ericsson's  sense  of  fair  plav,  as  his  engine, 
owing  to  its  construction,  was  compelled  to  run  handicapped 
with  the  load  of  a  water-tank.  The  contemporary  accounts 
certainly  awarded  the  palm  of  victory  to  him,  and  those  who 
read  the  newspapers  of  that  day  will  suppose  that  the  prize  was 
surely  his.  The  account  of  the  performance  of  the  ^^ovdii/ 
given  in  the  London  Times  (October  8,  1829)  was  very  full 
and  most  enthusiastic.  Aside  from  its  commendation  of  Erics- 
son's Novelty^  it  is  interesting  as  a  contemporary  account  of  an 
historical  contest.     The  Times  said  : 

The  directors  of  the  Livei-pool  k  Manchester  Railroad  having  of- 
fered, in  the  month  of  April  last,  a  prize  of  £500  for  the  best  locomo- 
tive engine,  the  trial  of  the  carriages  which  had  been  constructed  to  con- 
tend for  the  prize  commenced  to-day.  The  running  ground  was  on  the 
Manchester  side  of  the  Rainhill  bridge,  at  a  place  called  Keurick's  Cross, 
about  nine  miles  from  Liverpool.  At  this  place  the  railroad  runs  on  a 
dead  level,  and  formed,  of  course,  a  fine  spot  for  trying  the  comparative 
speed  of  the  carriages.  The  directors  had  made  suitable  preparations 
for  this  important  as  well  as  interesting  experiment  of  the  powers  of 
locomotive  carriages.  For  the  accommodation  of  the  ladies  who  might 
visit  the  course  (to  use  the  language  of  the  turf)  a  booth  wate  erected  on 


60  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

the  south  side  of  the  raiboad,  equidistant  from  the  extremities  of  the 
trial  ground.  Here  a  band  of  music  was  stationed  and  amused  the  com- 
pany during  the  day  by  playing  pleasing  and  favorite  airs. 

The  directors,  each  of  whom  wore  a  white  riband  in  his  button- 
hole, arrived  on  the  course  shortly  after  10  o'clock  in  the  forenoon,  hav- 
ing come  from  Huyton  on  cars  di-awn  by  Mr.  R.  Stephenson's  locomotive 
steam  carriage,  which  moved  up  the  inclined  plane  from  thence  with 
considerable  velocity.  Meanwhile  ladies  and  gentlemen  in  great  num- 
bers arrived  from  Liverpool  and  Wamngton,  St.  Helens  and  Manches- 
ter, as  well  as  from  the  surrounding  country,  in  vehicles  of  every  de- 
scription. Indeed,  all  the  roads  presented  on  this  occasion  scenes  sim- 
ilar to  those  which  roads  leading  to  race-courses  usually  present  during 
days  of  sport.  The  pedestrians  were  extremely  numerous,  and  crowded 
all  the  roads  which  conducted  to  the  race-ground. 

The  spectators  lined  both  sides  of  the  road  for  the  distance  of  a 
mile  and  a  half  ;  and  although  the  men  employed  on  the  line,  amount- 
ing to  nearly  three  hundred,  acted  as  special  constables,  with  orders  to 
keep  the  crowd  off  the  course,  all  their  efforts  to  cari^  their  orders  into 
effect  were  rendered  nugatory  by  the  people  persisting  in  walking  on  the 
course.  It  is  difficult  to  form  an  estimate  of  the  number  of  individuals 
who  had  congregated  to  behold  the  experiment,  but  there  could  not,  at 
a  moderate  calculation,  be  less  than  ten  thousand.  Some  gentlemen 
even  went  so  far  as  to  compute  them  at  fifteen  thousand.  Never,  per- 
haps, on  any  occasion  were  so  many  scientific  gentlemen  and  practical 
engineers  collected  together  on  one  spot.  The  interesting  and  impor- 
tant nature  of  the  experiments  to  be  tried  had  drawn  from  all  parts  of 
the  kingdom  to  bo  present  at  this  contest  of  locomotive  can-iages,  as 
well  as  to  witness  the  amazing  utility  of  railways  in  expediting  the  com- 
munication between  distant  places.  The  attendance  of  the  members  of 
the  Society  of  Friends  was  extremely  numerous  also,  and  their  appear- 
ance on  a  race-course  gave  rise  to  some  amusing  badmage  during  the 
day. 

There  were  only  one  or  two  public-houses  or  taverns  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  trial  ground.  These  were,  of  course,  crowded  with  company  as 
the  day  advanced,  particularly  the  railroad  tavern  at  Ken  rick's  Cross, 
which  was  literally  crammed.  The  locomotive  carriages  attracted,  of 
course,  the  attention  of  every  individual  on  the  road.  They  ran  up  and 
down  during  the  afternoon  more  for  amusement  than  experiment,  sur- 
prising and  even  startling  the  unscientific  beholders  by  the  amazing 
velocity  with  which  they  moved  along  the  rails.  Mr.  Robert  Stephen- 
son's carriage  attracted  the  most  attention  during  the  early  part  of  the 
afternoon.  It  ran  without  any  weight  being  attached  to  it,  at  the  rate 
of  twenty-four  miles  in  the  hour,  shooting  past  the  spectators  with  amaz- 
ing velocity,  emitting  very  little  smoke  but  dropping  its  red-hot  cin- 
ders as  it  proceeded.  Cars  containing  stones  were  then  attached  to  it, 
weighing,  together  with  its  own  weight,  upward  of  seventeen  tons,  pre- 


THE   ERA   OF   LOCOMOTIVE   ENGINEERING.  61 

paratory  to  the  trial  of  its  speed  being  made.  This  trial  occupied,  with 
stoppages,  seventy-one  minutes,  and  proved  that  the  carriage  can,  draw- 
ing three  times  its  own  weight,  run  at  the  rate  of  more  than  ten  miles 
an  hour. 

But  the  speed  of  all  the  other  locomotive  steam  carriages  on  the 
course  was  far  exceeded  by  that  of  Messrs.  Braithwaite  &  Ericsson's 
beautiful  engine  from  London.  It  was  the  lightest  and  most  elegant 
carriage  on  the  road  yesterday,  and  the  velocity  with  which  it  moved 
surprised  and  amazed  every  beholder.  It  shot  along  the  line  at  the 
amazing  rate  of  thirty  miles  an  hour !  It  seemed,  indeed,  to  fly,  present- 
ing one  of  the  most  sublime  spectacles  of  human  ingenuity  and  human 
daring  the  world  ever  beheld. 

Of  the  second  day's  trial  the  Times  of  October  12,  1829, 
said: 

Messrs.  Braithwaite  &  Ericsson's  engine  (the  Novelty)  proved  it- 
self to-day  to  be  as  good  (proportionally)  at  drawing  a  load  as  running 
without  one.  It  drew,  in  one  hour,  three  times  its  weight  a  distance 
of  20f  miles ! 

In  its  issue  of  October  16,  1829,  the  Times  said  : 

The  definite  trial  of  Messrs.  Braithwaite  &  Ericsson's  locomotive 
carriage  (the  Novelty)  was  fixed  for  this  day.  The  load  having  been 
attached,  the  engine  started  on  its  journey  shortly  after  one  o'clock.  It 
performed  two  trips  with  great  celerity ;  but  when  running  down  the 
course  for  the  third  time  the  pressure  of  the  steam  was  too  great  for 
the  boiler,  which  unfortunately  burst.*  This  accident  put  an  end  to 
the  trial  and  the  Novelty  was  taken  from  the  course. 

The  trials  which  have  taken  place  have  satisfactorily  proved  the  su- 
periority of  the  piinciple  on  which  the  Novelty  is  constructed.  The 
machine  was,  however,  too  hastily  and  slightly  fabricated — defects  which 
Messrs.  Braithwaite  &  Ericsson  can  easily  remedy  in  any  future  engines 
which  they  may  construct  for  railroads. 

To  John  Bourne  Ericsson  wrote  (January  19, 1875)  saying: 

The  Novelty  was  provided  with  a  blowing  machine  operated  by. 
a  short  lever  attached  to  the  extension  of  the  axle  of  one  of  the  bell- 
cranks.  The  air  was  forced  into  a  close  ash-pit,  the  fuel,  coke,  being 
supplied  from  the  top  by  means  of  a  hopper  having  two  slide  valves. 
The  bottom  of  the  ash-pit,  as  well  as  the  grate,  moved  on  hinges  in 

•  This  is  a  mistake.  The  escape  of  steam  from  the  yielding  of  green  joints 
misled  the  reporter. 


62  LIFE   OF   JOUN   ERICSSON. 

order  to  admit  of  cleaning.  The  furnace  was  npright,  resembling  an 
inverted  truncated  cone.  The  flue,  made  of  copper,  was  a  descending 
one,  leading  out  of  the  top  of  the  furnace  and  returning  three  times, 
•vrith  the  exit  at  the  extreme  end  of  the  horizontal  part  of  the  boiler. 
Several  boUers  built  on  this  plan  all  proved  verv  satisfactorv.  In  my 
steam  fire-engine  of  1810,  however,  though  the  blowing  machine  was  re- 
tained, the  fire-box  was  square  and  the  tubes  straight,  as  in  Booth's 
boiler — I  persist  in  nol  calling  it  a  Stephenson  boiler. 

As  to  straight  tubes,  Braithwaite  and  mvself  built  a  boiler  with 
twenty  straight  copper  tubes  and  an  internal  furnace  in  1828,  the  oper- 
ation of  which  was  witnessed  by  Captain  Boss  and  other  persons.  We 
abandoned  this  mode  of  construction  because  it  was  difficult  to  make 
steam-tight  joints  and  not  so  economical  as  the  descending  flue,  or  the 
helical  flue  coiled  round  the  furnace.  Ill-natured  people  in  Liverpool, 
during  the  Eainhill  trials,  insisted  that  Booth  borrowed  his  idea  from 
London.*  Unfortunately  my  drawings  of  these  boilers  were  destroyed 
many  years  ago. 

The  Xorelty  was  planned  and  built  ready  for  transportation  to 
Liverpool  in  seven  weeks.  But  for  a  letter  received  from  a  friend  in  that 
town,  at  the  end  of  July,  1829,  informing  me,  merely  as  news,  that  a 
"steam  race"  was  expected,  the  Xorelty  would  never  have  been  con- 
structed. 

After  the  Eainhill  trials,  I  used  the  Xoreliy  as  an  experimental 
engine  to  test  the  efliciency  of  exhaust  draught  and  independent  power  for 
operating  the  blowing  machine,  etc.,  etc.  At  the  end  of  those  experi- 
ments, the  Xorelty  could  hardly  be  recognized  as  the  Xorelty.  I  after- 
ward designed  another  form  of  locomotive  engine  of  very  elegant  ap- 
pearance, two  of  which  were  built  by  Braithwaite,  intending  to  astonish 
the  world  at  the  opening  of  the  Liverpool  it  Manchester  Eailway.  They 
proved  utter  failures  for  want  of  steam  ;  my  opponents'  outcry  against  a 
close  ash-pit  having  induced  me  to  abandon  the  blowing  machine  and 
resort  to  exhaust  draught,  produced  by  a  small  fan-wheel  turning  with- 
in a  magnificent  polished  copper  vase  placed  on  the  top  of  the  boiler ; 
very  classical  but  miserably  ineflicient. 

The  two  locomotives  here  referred  to  were  called  the  '  Kiiig 
WilUam  '  and  '  Queen  Adelaide.''  \  To  them  was  for  the  first 
time  applied  in  1S30,   the  link  motion  for  reversing  steam- 

*  That  is  to  say.  from  Ericsson's  previous  use  of  it  in  London. 

f  Speaking  of  the  opening  of  the  Liverpool  &  Manchester  Railway,  Sep- 
tember 15,  1830,  Rev.  Olinthus  J.  Vignoles,  in  his  life  of  Charles  Blacker 
Vignoles,  says:  "  New  engines  made  by  Ericsson  &  Co.  for  this  occasion,  viz., 
Queen  Adelaide  and  WUliavi  the  Fourth,  had  been  contracted  for  by  the 
Liverpool  &  Manchester  directors,  but  they  had  not  reached  Liverpool  in 
time  to  be  *  proved  '  before  the  day  of  opening. " 


THE   ERA   OF  LOCOMOTIVE  ENGINEERING.  63 

engines.  The  so-called  Stephenson  link  is  a  modification  of 
Ericsson's  original  link  motion. 

The  several  statements  made  by  Ericsson  concerning  the 
Rainhill  trial,  and  here  quoted,  were  all  of  them  sent  in  answer 
to  requests  for  information  coming  from  authorities  on  steam 
engineering  and  the  authors  of  works  of  professional  reputa- 
tion. The  final  paragraph  of  the  letter  last  quoted  shows  how 
ready  he  was  to  admit  his  mistakes  when  once  thoroughly  con- 
vinced that  he  was  wrong. 

Among  those  present  at  Eainhill  was  a  young  man  named 
John  Scott  Russell,  who  has  since  become  so  widely  known  as 
one  of  the  most  eminent  of  English  engineers.  To  the  seventh 
edition  of  the  "  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,"  published  three  years 
after  the  contest,  Mr.  Ei.ssell  contributed  an  article  in  which  he 
said  :  "  The  Novelty  had  to  be  withdrawn,  through  a  series 
of  unfortunate  accidents  which  had  no  reference  to  the  charac- 
ter or  capabilities  of  the  engine ;  and  we  well  recollect  that  it 
made  a  powerful  impression  on  the  public  mind  at  the  time. 
On  the  first  day  of  the  trial,  Thursday,  October  6,  1829,  it  went 
twenty-eight  miles  an  hour  (without  any  attached  load)  and  did 
one  mile  in  seven  seconds  under  two  minutes.  This  perform- 
ance will  now  appear  trifling ;  but  at  the  time  the  sensation  it 
produced  was  immense." 

The  directors  asked  for  ten  miles  an  hour  and  Ericsson  gave 
them  nearly  thirty-two  miles  (31.9).  It  is  true  it  was  with  an 
unloaded  engine,  but  this  immense  step  forward  was  enough  to 
prove  the  possibilities  of  locomotion.  "It  is  far  from  my 
wish,"  Mr.  Nicholas  "Wood,  one  of  the  judges,  had  said  before 
the  trial,  "to  promulgate  to  the  world  that  the  individual  ex- 
pectation, or  rather  profession  of  the  enthusiastic  specialist  will 
be  realized  and  that  we  shall  see  engines  travelling  at  the  rate 
of  twelve,  sixteen,  eighteen,  or  twenty  miles  an  hour.  Nothing 
could  do  more  harm  toward  their  adoption  or  general  improve- 
ment than  the  promulgation  of  such  nonsense." 

What  was  to  be  said,  then,  of  this  Swedish  youth  of  twenty- 
six,  fresh  from  his  Norrland  forest,  who  gave  them  more  than 
thirty  miles  an  hour  ?  Stephenson,  too,  exceeded  his  expecta- 
tions, for  Mr.  Russell  credits  his  locomotive  with  twenty -four 
miles  an  hour,  drawing  three  times  its  own  weight,  and  thirty 


64 


LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 


miles  without  a  load.  "Ilad  the  seventy  miles  been  one 
length,"  sajs  Mr.  Russell,  "  the  Rocket  would  have  maintained 
an  average  velocity  of  fifteen  miles  an  hour." 

Ericsson,  while  vastly  increasing  the  speed  of  locomotives, 
at  the  same  time  reduced  the  weight  eighty-five  per  cent.,  as 
compared  with  those  then  in  use.  The  Rocket,  though  it 
weighed  four  times  as  much  as  the  Novelty^  was  also  a  great  im- 
provement in  this  respect  upon  the  engines  preceding  it. 

Charles  Blacker  Yignoles,  F.R.S.,  rode  with  Ericsson  that 
day,  and  forty-one  years  after  (January  11, 1870),  in  his  address 
upon  taking  the  chair  as  president  of  the  English  Institution  of 
Civil  Engineers,  Mr.  Yignoles  said  :  "  The  J^ocelty  was  long 
remembered  as  the  beau  ideal  of  a  locomotive,  which,  if  it  did 
not  command  success,  deserved  it." 

"  To  most  men,"  says  another  authority,  John  Bourne,  "  the 


View  of  the  Novelty  with  a  Train  of  Engine  and  Coaches  in    1829. 
(Irom  pen-and-ink  drawing  by  C.  B.  Vignoles.) 


production  of  such  an  engine  would  have  constituted  an  ade- 
quate claim  to  celebrity.  In  the  case  of  Ericsson,  it  is  only  a 
single  star  of  the  brilliant  galaxy  with  which  his  shield  is 
spangled." 

Ericsson's  engine  leaped  at  once  to  the  very  front  of  locomo- 
tive performance  thus  far,  if  we  are  to  accept  the  statement  of 
Mr.  Cowper,  confirmed  by  the  excellent  authority  of  Ericsson 
and  Yignoles,  who  declared  that  the  Novelty  ran,  on  one  occa- 
sion, with  them  on  board,  at  the  rate  of  fifty  miles  an  hour. 
The  Great  Western  Railway  of  England  had  distanced  all 
competitors  when  it  made  this  speed  on  a  continuous  journey, 
excluding  stops  from  the  calculation.  The  average  speed  of  all 
the  express  trains  in  England  is  now  \^  miles  an  hour,  exclud- 
ing stops,  and  in  the  United  States  41  f  miles.  The  maximum 
speed  is  47  miles,  and  the  highest  speed  beyond  the  bounds  of 


THE   ERA   OF   LOCOMOTIVE   ENGINEERING.  65 

Anglo-Saxon  civilization  is  37  miles  an  hour.  This  is  the  speed 
of  the  trains  that  skirt  the  base  of  the  Pyramids.  France  fol- 
lows next  with  an  average  of  36^  miles  and  a  maximum  of 
43  miles  from  Paris  to  Calais.  The  great  advance  is  in  the  in- 
creasing number  of  the  trains  run  at  these  high  speeds.* 

We  may  imagine  the  excitement  following  the  announce- 
ment in  the  Times  concerning  the  performance  of  the  Novelty, 
for  to  this  engine,  as  we  have  seen,  England's  great  daily  de- 
voted chief  attention.  Pailroad  shares  leaped  at  once  to  a  pre- 
mium, and  excited  groups  gathered  on  'change  to  discuss  the 
wonderful  event  which  British  opinion  had  led  everyone  not  to 
expect.  The  pessimists  were  silenced  ;  the  art  of  modern  rail- 
way travel  was  inaugurated,  miles  divided  where  leagues  sepa- 
rated before  ;  men  were  called  upon  to  adjust  themselves  to 
new  conditions  created  by  the  possibilities  of  freer  intercourse, 
and  the  era  of  great  cities  and  mighty  states  extending  their 
sway  over  continents  was  opened. 

To  the  young  engineer  who  played  his  part  so  well  that  day 
was  accorded  the  rare  privilege  of  living  long  enough  to  witness 
the  development  of  the  new  age  he  had  helped  to  usher  in.  In 
the  closing  years  of  his  life  he  could  look  back  upon  "  a  change 
in  the  physical  relations  of  man  to  the  planet  on  which  he 
dwells  greater  than  any  that  can  be  distinctly  measured  in  any 
known  period  of  historic  time : "  a  change  he  had  a  most 
memorable  part  in  creating,  and  all  of  which  had  come  within 
the  period  covered  by  his  professional  labors. 

In  1841,  when  the  railroad  had  fairly  established  itself  as 
a  popular  means  of  transit,  eighteen  hundred  miles  of  track 
liad  been  built  and  three  hundred  thousand  passengers  were 
carried  weekly.  When  Ericsson  died,  nearly  half  a  century 
later,  the  annual  receipts  of  English  railroads  were  more  than 
the  capital  outlay  in  1841  and  the  number  of  passengers  had 
increased  more  than  forty-fold. 

The  trial  on  the  Liverpool  &  Manchester  road  not  only  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  all  England,  but  it  brought  together,  as 
the  reports  show,  a  great  gathering  of  the  engineers  of  that 
day.     Coming  together  and  dining  together  are  in  England  re- 

*  Express  Trains,  Euglisli  and  Foreign.    By  E.  Foxwell  and  T.  C.  Parrer. 
London,  1889. 
5 


66  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

lated  as  caase  to  effect.  A  grand  banquet  was  given  in  Liver- 
pool to  the  directors  and  officers  of  the  railway  and  to  the  com- 
peting locomotive  builders.  Toasts  and  speeches  followed,  and 
if  Ericsson  did  not  carry  liome  with  him  the  £500  offered  as  a 
prize,  he  at  least  made  himself  known  to  all  England  as  one 
of  the  rising  men  of  his  profession. 

If  slow  to  realize  the  possibilities  of  railroad  locomotion  in 
advance,  the  capitalists  were  prompt  to  take  advantage  of  the 
change  when  it  came.  A  powerful  combination  was  formed  to 
open  communication  with  the  French  capital  by  railroad  and 
steamboat,  and  Yignoles  was  sent  over  to  secure  the  necessary 
concession  from  the  French  Government.  Thiers,  then  Minis- 
ter of  Public  "Works,  visited  England  with  his  under-secretary  to 
inquire  into  this  method  of  locomotion.  But  he  did  not  pro- 
pose to  trust  himself  to  it,  for  he  carried  with  him  for  private 
use  a  lumbering  coach  of  the  time  of  Louis  Quatorze.  M. 
Thiers  examined,  listened,  responded  politely  to  those  who 
sought  to  instruct  him,  and  went  back  to  report  that  railroads 
were  not  suited  to  France,  and  to  violently  oppose  them  from 
his  place  in  the  Corps  Legislatif.  Thus  the  introduction  of 
railroads  into  France  was  postponed  for  eight  years,  and  an  il- 
lustration given  of  the  enormous  difficulties  against  which  such 
men  as  Ericsson  contend.  Xaturally,  Ericsson  did  not  share 
the  reverence  for  official  utterance  entertained  by  "  Sir  Joseph 
Porter,  K.C.B.,''  and  if  he  on  occasion  spoke  evil  of  dignita- 
ries, his  experience  through  life  gave  him  ample  justification. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  HOT-AIR  ENGINE, 

A  Spendthrift  in  Invention. — Associations  with  "William  Laird. — The 
Caloric  Engine  the  Sensation  of  London. — Faraday's  Lecture  upon 
it. — Ericsson  Anticipates  Sir  William  Thomson's  Sounding  Appa- 
ratus.— Applies  Steam  to  Canal  Navigation. 

JOHN  ERICSSOK  was  now  fairly  entered  upon  his  en- 
gineering career.  Fortune,  as  well  as  fame  would  have 
been  within  his  reach  had  he  possessed  what  is  called  "  the 
nose  for  money."  But  the  Swede  has  been  described  as  "  one 
born  to  own  a  million  and  to  spend  two."  And  if  this  de- 
scription does  not  apply  to  the  race,  it  certainly  does  apply  to 
this  particular  representative  of  it.  He  was  accustomed  to 
say  he  cared  not  who  drew  at  the  spigot,  so  long  as  he  controlled 
the  bung,  and  the  spigot  was  always  open.  Nor  was  Ericsson 
in  any  active  sense  anxious  for  fame.  He  wished  to  accom- 
plish, not  to  proclaim  his  accomplishment ;  though  he  was  quick 
enough  to  defend  his  reputation  when  assailed,  or  to  assert  him- 
self when  he  detected  a  disposition  to  set  him  aside.  His  one 
consuming  passion  was  to  bring  forth  some  new  thing,  or  to 
transform  the  old  in  the  alembic  of  his  creative  imagination. 
Eor  this  he  would  sacrifice  his  own  means  and,  so  far  as  they 
would  let  him,  the  means  of  his  friends.  Not  otherwise  ex- 
travagant, in  realizing  his  engineering  conceptions  he  was  a 
spendthrift.  For  this  reason,  the  partnership  with  Braithwaite, 
so  valuable  in  practical  experience,  was  not  a  commercial  suc- 
cess. The  steam  fire-engine  was  a  mechanical  triumph,  but  it 
did  not  bring  orders  to  the  workshop.  It  was  a  generation  in 
advance  of  the  demand.  Though  the  experiments  with  the 
Victory  laid  the  foundation  for  future  triumphs  in  naval  con- 
struction their  immediate  result  was  most  unfortunate. 

In  the  field  of  locomotive  construction  Ericsson  was  distanced 


68  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

by  the  more  steady-going,  if  less  brilliant,  Stephenson,  whose 
labors,  concentrated  upon  the  work  of  improving  and  adapting, 
were  not  disturbed  by  the  constant  buzzing  of  inventive  con- 
ceits, Ericsson's  energies,  on  the  contrary,  were  divided  among 
the  numerous  schemes  constantly  born  of  a  prolific  brain,  and 
such  of  these  adventures  as  were  profitable  were,  like  tlie  "good 
ears  "  of  Pharaoh's  dream,  "  devoured  by  the  thin  ears  blasted 
by  the  east  wind,"  Invention  followed  invention  at  the  aver- 
age rate  of  three  or  four  a  year  for  a  long  period,  limiting  the 
term  to  devices  put  in  actual  operation,  and  excluding  the  nu- 
merous modifications  introduced  into  existing  patents. 

Ericsson  shared  the  experience  common  to  inventors,  and 
discovered  at  times  that  he  was  forbidden  to  use  his  own  ideas 
because  they  were  vaguely  suggested  in  some  previous  patent 
or  had  been  monopolized  by  some  later  discoverer,  more  enter- 
prising than  he  in  availing  himself  of  the  protection  of  the 
Government.  He  never  invented  anything,  he  was  accustomed 
to  say,  without  finding  it  claimed  by  some  one,  as  soon  as  at- 
tention was  called  to  its  value  by  its  introduction  into  use. 

Following  his  abandonment  of  the  field  of  locomotive  con- 
struction, he  desio;ned  a  steam-encrine  formed  of  a  hollow  drum 
of  metal  with  inclined  planes  set  on  the  inner  surface.  The 
steam  was  admitted  at  the  centre  and  striking  these  planes  set 
the  globe  in  motion,  at  the  rate  of  over  six  hundred  miles  an 
hour,  or  nine  hundred  feet  in  a  second.  This  steam  wheel  was 
a  beautiful  piece  of  work,  so  true  a  circle  and  so  highly  polished 
that  it  continued  to  rotate  for  several  hours  after  the  steam 
was  shut  off.  It  was  set  up  at  Birkenhead,  England,  in  1831, 
and  connected  to  a  centrifugal  pump  by  band  wheels  to  reduce 
the  speed.  The  pump,  another  of  Ericsson's  inventions,  raised 
a  standard  column  of  water  thirty-two  feet  high,  and  two  feet 
in  diameter.  The  enormous  speed  of  the  prime  motor  rapidly 
destroyed  the  belts,  but  the  action  of  the  pump  was  perfect. 
A  patent  for  this  rotary  engine  was  obtained  February  8,  1832, 
and  one-half  interest  in  it  assigned  to  William  Laird,  of  Liver- 
pool, who  advanced  the  money  to  pay  for  the  patent  and  con- 
duct experiments.  The  title  of  the  engine  was  "  an  improved 
engine  for  communicating  mechanical  power."  One-half  inter- 
est in  another  rotary  engine,  bearing  the  same  title,  was  also 


THE  HOT-AIR  ENGINE. 


69 


assigned  to  Mr.  Laird.  This,  as  we  are  informed  by  a  memo- 
randum found  among  Ericsson's  effects,  "  proved  a  complete 
failure  when  put  to  trial." 

Rotary  engines  have  been  the  dream  of  inventors  for  gener- 
ations ;  indeed,  since  the  time  of  Uero  of  Alexandria,  B.C.  130. 
They  are  practicable,  and  have  been  to  a  certain  extent  success- 
ful. Other  engines  convert  reciprocating  into  rotary  motion  ; 
in  a  rotary  engine  the  steam  is  applied  directly  in  the  line  of 
motion,  and  thus  follows  the  movement  of  the  earth  upon  its 


Hero's  Engine. 

axis.  The  enormous  speed  of  nine  hundred  feet  a  second,  ob- 
tained by  Ericsson's  engine,  was  almost  exactly  equal  to  that  of 
Liverpool  around  the  axis  of  the  globe. 

William  Laird,  with  whom  Ei-icsson  became  associated  at 
this  time,  was  one  of  the  founders  of  Birkenhead,  opposite 
Liverpool.  As  late  as  181S  this  place  was  nothing  more  than 
a  fishing  village,  with  less  than  fifty  inhabitants,  and  the  first 
shipbuilding  docks  were  not  erected  there  until  1824.  The 
friendship  established  by  Ericsson  with  the  heads  of  the  great 
shipbuilding  house  of  Laird  &  Son  extended  to  the  third  gen- 


70  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSOX. 

eration.  On  the  death  of  the  father  of  the  present  Mr.  Will, 
iam  Laird  in  1874,  his  son  wrote  to  Ericsson,  saying:  "Ire- 
member  very  well  that  in  the  earlier  days  of  Birkenhead  you 
were  intimate  with  my  father  and  grandfather,  and  it  is  pleas- 
ant to  know  that  the  lapse  of  so  many  years  has  not  altered 
your  feelings  of  friendship  and  esteem  for  them." 

On  February  27,  1830,  Ericsson  patented,  in  the  name  of 
John  Braithwaite,  an  apparatus  for  making  salt  from  brine. 
The  fluid  was  first  heated  in  closed  boilers,  placed  underground, 
and  next  turned  into  large  open  cisterns,  there  agitated  by 
centrifugal  fan-wheels,  and  then  allowed  to  settle  and  de- 
posit the  salt.  It  worked  perfectly,  and  proved  to  be  economi- 
cal. The  crystals  were  of  unusual  size  but  nmch  discolored, 
and  numerous  experiments  failed  to  discover  any  method  of 
overcoming  this  fatal  defect.  Messrs.  Cropper,  Benson  <fe  Co., 
of  Liverpool,  advanced  £5,000  for  obtaining  the  patents  for 
this  invention  and  erecting  experimental  works  at  Liverpool 
and  Winsford  in  Cheshire.  To  them  the  patent  for  this  '*'  im- 
proved method  of  manufacturing  salt "  was  assigned,  and  they 
were  given  control  of  it  as  general  agents.  Twenty  years  later 
the  Siemens  Brothers  wasted  a  still  larger  sum  in  the  unsuc- 
cessful attempt  to  improve  the  process  of  manufacturing  salt 
by  their  "  Begenerative  Evaporator." 

To  the  steamer  Corsair,  plying  between  Liverpool  and 
Belfast,  was  applied  in  1832  a  centrifugal  fan-blower,  operated 
by  a  separate  small  engine,  and  intended  to  increase  the  draft 
in  the  furnace  by^  creating  an  artificial  current  of  air.  This 
was  the  first  employment,  for  marine  purposes,  of  a  device 
subsequently  brought  into  general  use  on  American  steamers. 
'■  I  claim,"  said  Ericsson  in  a  letter  to  John  Bourne,  "  to  be  the 
father  of  the  independent  power  fan-blower  system  for  steam 
vessels,  now  universally  adopted  in  American  river  navigation. 
So  far  no  one  has  disputed  my  claim." 

On  February  8,  1832,  a  novel  device  for  a  rotary  engine 
made  its  appearance  from  the  busy  workshop  of  the  inventor's 
brain,  and  a  modification  of  it  followed  during  the  succeeding 
year.  These  engines  were  patented,  and  experimented  with,  at 
the  expense  of  Mr.  "William  Laird,  who  received  a  one-half 
interest  in  the  patents.     One  was  applied  to  a  vessel  on  the 


THE  HOT-AIR  ENGINE.  71 

Mersey  and  the  other  was  set  up  for  trial  at  the  establishment 
of  Messrs.  Maudsley.  They  worked  well,  but  consumed  more 
steam  than  ordinary  reciprocating  engines,  having  the  piston 
moving  backward  and  forward  in  the  steam  cylinder,  as  in 
Watt's  engine. 

These  failures  to  introduce  more  economical  methods  in  the 
use  of  steam  seem  to  have  intensified  Ericsson's  determination 
to  find  a  substitute  for  it.  He  had  never  laid  aside  the  ex- 
pectations connected  with  his  earliest  invention  of  a  flame-en- 
gine ;  indeed,  their  influence  may  be  traced  through  all  the  ex- 
periences of  his  long  and  busy  life.  They  at  one  time  led  him 
very  near  to  the  danger-line  of  speculation  as  to  the  possibility 
of  perpetual  motion.  He  knew  of  no  engineer,  he  said,  who 
had  not  at  some  time  been  fascinated  with  this  conceit.  In  the 
mechanical  operations  of  nature  there  seemed  to  be,  with  contin- 
ual waste,  some  law  of  compensation  at  work,  and  Ericsson  was 
led  to  the  conclusion  that  there  exists  in  nature  a  principle  of  ab- 
solute reproduction  of  mechanical  force.  For  this  he  sought  as 
for  the  pearl  of  great  price.  The  dynamical  theory  of  heat 
was  not  accepted  when  his  studies  began,  and  his  experiments 
led  him  to  believe  that  heat  was  an  agent  exerting  mechanical 
force  without  itself  undergoing  change.  In  this  opinion  he 
was  supported  by  the  declaration  of  his  countryman.  Professor 
Harvefeldt,  a  famous  mathematician,  that  there  was  nothing  in 
the  accepted  theory  of  heat  to  prove  that  a  common  spirit-lamp 
might  not  be  suflicient  to  drive  an  engine  of  one  hundred  horse- 
power. Ericsson  hoped  at  least  to  so  lessen  the  consumption 
of  fuel  in  the  production  of  mechanical  power  as  to  extend  the 
range  of  manufacturing  industries  into  regions  not  furnished 
with  fuel,  as  well  as  to  remove  farther  into  the  future  the  in- 
evitable period  when  the  world's  coal  supply  will  be  exhausted. 

The  smoke-jack,  setting  figures  in  motion  by  the  action  of 
the  rarefied  air  rising  from  a  hot  stove,  is  the  simplest  expres- 
sion of  the  mechanical  force  Ericsson  sought  to  control  in  his 
"caloric  engine."  As  early  as  1699,  the  Frenchman,  Amouton, 
had  applied  this  principle  to  a  wheel  moved  by  a  column  of 
heated  air.  A  century  later,  in  1797,  an  Englishman,  Glaze- 
brook,  patented  the  idea  of  transferring  the  heat  in  an  air-en- 
gine from  the  hot  air  going  out  after  doing  its  work  to  the 


72  LIFE  OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

cool  air  coming  in  to  take  its  place  and  continue  the  circuit. 
The  same  idea  is  found  in  Lillev's  English  patent  of  1S19,  and 
in  the  hot-air  engines  of  Rev.  Dr.  Robert  Stirling,  to  whom  the 
credit  for  its  conception  is  usually  given. 

Stirling,  who  was  a  clergyman  of  Ayrshire,  in  the  year 
Ericsson  arrived  in  England,  1S26,  applied  for  a  patent  for  an 
air-engine  representing  what  is  known  as  the  regenerative  prin- 
ciple. The  fact  that  Ericsson  opposed  this  application  shows 
what  he  thought  of  Stirling's  claim  to  originality.  His  oppo- 
sition was  unavailing,  for  a  patent  is  on  record  as  having  been 
granted  in  the  following  year.*  The  reverend  gentleman  de- 
scribes his  apparatus  for  receiving  and  transferring  the  heat  as 
similar  in  principle  to  "  Jeffrey's  Respirator,"  then  used  by  con- 
sumptive patients  to  transfer  the  heat  contained  in  the  air  ex- 
haled from  the  lungs,  to  the  cool  air  inhaled  to  take  its  place. 
Stirling's  device  was  imperfect,  and  his  engine,  as  Chambers 
states,  was  crude  and  incomplete.  Xevertheless,  it  greatly 
annoyed  Ericsson  by  its  claims  to  priority.  His  own  applica- 
tion of  a  "  regenerator  "  was  first  made  in  1833,  when  he  in- 
vented and  patented  in  England,  France,  the  United  States,  and 
other  countries  a  "  caloric  engine  ''  with  an  *'  organ-pipe  regen- 
erator "  consisting  of  a  faggot  of  small  copper  tubes.  Through 
these  tubes  the  heated  air  passed  on  its  way  out  of  the  working 
cylinder  to  the  '*  cooler,"  and  on  the  outside  of  the  tubes  the 
cold  air  from  the  cooler  passed  in  an  opposite  direction  on  its 
way  into  the  cylinders.  Thus,  there  was  a  transfer  of  heat 
from  the  air  going  out,  after  doing  its  work,  to  the  cold  air 
coming  in  to  take  its  place  over  the  furnace.  This  transmission 
of  heat  from  the  outgoing  to  the  incoming  air  reduced  to  the 
minimum  the  waste  of  heat,  and  consequently  of  power.  This 
"  regenerator  "  was  the  result  of  many  years  of  study  and  care- 
ful experiment  to  determine  the  most  effective  means  of  pre- 
venting the  loss  of  heat,  for  Ericsson  had  discovered  that  it 
was  necessary  to  maintain  the  air  in  his  working  cylinder  at  a 
high  temperature  until  the  end  of  the  piston's  stroke.  The  cyl- 
inder for  compressing  the  air  was  surrounded  by  a  water-jacket, 
to  keep  down  the  temperature  and  protect  the  leather  fasten- 
ings from  the  high  heat. 

*  See  Volume  6,  Tliird  Series,  Repertory  of  Patents,  1828. 


THE  HOT-AIR   ENGINE.  73 

An  experimental  caloric  engine  of  five  horse-power,  and 
■with  a  worlring  piston  fourteen  inches  in  diameter,  was  set  in 
motion  at  London,  in  1833,  and  at  once  excited  extraordinary 
interest.  Sir  Richard  Phillips  has  recorded,  in  his  "  Dictionary 
of  the  Arts  of  Life  and  of  Civilization,"  the  "  inexpressible  de- 
light "  with  which  he  witnessed  the  workings  of  this  machine. 
"  With  a  handful  of  fuel  applied  to  the  very  sensible  medium 
of  atmospheric  air  and  a  most  ingenious  disposition  of  its  dif- 
ferential powers,  he  beheld  a  resulting  action  in  narrow  com- 
pass, capable  of  extension  to  as  great  forces  as  ever  can  be 
wielded  or  nsed  by  man." 

"  The  principle  of  the  new  engine,"  Sir  Richard  tells  us, 
"consists  in  this,  that  the  heat  that  is  required  to  give  motion 
to  the  engine  at  the  commencement,  is  retained  by  a  peculiar 
process  of  transfer,  and  thereby  made  to  act  over  and  over 
again,  instead  of  being,  as  in  the  steam-engine,  thrown  into  a 
condenser,  or  into  the  atmosphere  as  so  much  waste  fuel.  And 
the  well-known  phenomenon  that  temperature,  or  quality  of 
heat,  is  always  equalized  between  substances,  however  unequal 
they  may  be  in  density,  forms  the  basis  of  the  new  application 
of  heat."  * 

Dr.  Alexander  lire,  author  of  the  technical  dictionary  bear- 
ing his  name,  was  another  believer  in  the  caloric  engine,  assert- 
ing that  this  invention  would  throw  the  name  of  James  Watt 
into  the  shade.  The  little  engine  was  in  its  day  the  sensation 
of  London  in  scientific  and  mechanical  circles.  It  was  visited 
by  a  large  number  of  men  of  reputation,  as  well  as  by  curious 
crowds  of  sightseers,  and  for  many  years  after  was  a  theme  of 
discussion  in  engineering  circles.  Among  those  who  called  to 
visit  this  new  motor  was  Lord  Althorp,  afterward  Earl  Spen- 
cer, then  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  and  Ministerial  leader  in 
the  House  of  Commons.  lie  was  accompanied  by  Mr.  Brunei, 
the  distinguished  engineer  and  citizen  of  two  worlds,  whose 
name  is  associated  in  London  with  the  Thames  Tunnel,  and  in 
New  York  with  the  Bowery  Theatre  of  his  designing.  Mr. 
Brunei  was  not  favorably  impressed.  Believing  that  his  judg- 
ment was  founded  on  an  erroneous  impression  of  the  new  pow- 

*  Dictionary  of  the  Arts  of  Life  and  Civilization.     By  Sir  Richard  Phil- 
lips.    London,  1833. 


THE  HOT-AIR  ENGINE.  75 

er,  Ericsson  entered  into  a  lively  discussion  with  him.  This 
was  continued  by  correspondence,  with  the  usual  result  of  es- 
tablishing each  party  to  the  controversy  more  firmly  in  his  own 
opinion. 

Professor  Michael  Faraday,  however,  declared  by  John  Tvn- 
dall  to  be  "  the  greatest  experimental  philosopher  that  the 
world  has  ever  seen,"  was  prepared  to  give  a  hospitable  wel- 
come to  Ericsson's  theories  and  studied  his  new  engine  with 
the  greatest  attention  and  interest.  He  refused  to  accept  the 
condemnation  passed  upon  it  by  nearly  all  the  leading  scien- 
tific men  of  that  day,  and  denied  that  the  principle  on  which  it 
was  based  was  unsound.  Ericsson  counted  with  great  confi- 
dence upon  the  results  expected  to  follow  Faraday's  advocacy 
of  his  invention,  for  the  distinguished  investigator  announced 
his  intention  of  delivering  a  lecture  upon  it  at  the  theatre  of 
the  Koyal  Institution,  London.  A  large  audience  was  attracted 
by  this  announcement,  including  many  gentlemen  of  distin- 
guished scientific  reputation.  Just  as  Faraday  was  prepar- 
ing to  appear  upon  the  platform  he  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  he  had  made  a  mistake  as  to  the  principle  of  the  expan- 
sion of  air  upon  which  the  action  of  the  machine  was  depend- 
ent. He  accordingly  commenced  his  lecture,  greatly  to  the 
disappointment  of  Ericsson,  by  the  announcement  that  he  was 
unable  to  explain  why  the  engine  worked  at  all.  He  confined 
himself,  therefore,  to  an  explanation  of  the  regenerative  appa- 
ratus, for  using  the  heat  over  and  over  again  in  the  production 
of  force.  "  To  this  part  of  the  invention  he  rendered  ample 
justice,  and  explained  it  in  that  felicitous  style  to  which  he  is 
indebted  for  the  reputation  he  deservedly  enjoys,  as  the  most 
agreeable  and  successful  lecturer  in  England."  * 

The  caloric  engine  of  1833  was  a  sore  puzzle  to  the  savans 
of  that  day.  They  were  unwilling  to  accept  Ericsson's  theories 
and  claims  concerning  it,  but  their  own  opinions  as  to  the  nat- 
ure of  heat  were  not  sufficiently  settled  to  enable  them  to  ex- 
plain clearly  their  skepticism.  Aristotle  had  told  them  that  the 
first  principle  in  nature,  through  all  of  its  manifestations,  was 

*  A  Lecture  on  the  Late  Improvements  in  Steam  Navigation  and  the  Arts 
of  Naval  Warfare,  with  a  brief  Notice  of  Ericsson's  Caloric  Engine,  delivered 
before  the  Boston  Lyceum,  by  John  O.  Sargent.     New  York,  1844. 


76  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

unity,  and  that  these  manifestations  were  always  reducible  to 
motion  as  their  foundation,  and  Bacon  had  declared  that  "  the 
very  essence  of  heat  or  the  substantial  self  of  heat  is  motion," 
but  the  science  of  therrao-dynaraics  was  not  jet  established  on 
the  present  basis  of  theory  and  experiment.  It  was  not  until 
sixteen  years  later,  in  1S49,  that  Joule,  in  his  paper  before  the 
Royal  Society,  presented  his  final  conclusion  as  to  the  mechani- 
cal equivalent  of  heat,  and  established  the  existence  of  an  exact 
relation  between  heat  and  force. 

The  regenerator  was  correct  in  theory,  as  subsequent  ex- 
perience has  shown,  but  its  advantages  were  to  some  extent 
neutralized  by  the  obstruction  it  offered  to  the  free  passage 
of  air.  Other  practical  difficulties  presented  themselves  in  an 
engine  that  required  450°  F.  of  heat  instead  of  the  temperature 
of  212^  at  which  water  is  turned  into  steam.  Oxidation  soon 
destroyed  the  pistons,  valves,  and  other  working  parts. 

Ericsson's  use  of  high  temperature  in  an  air  engine  seems 
to  have  suggested  the  use  of  a  similar  apparatus  to  increase 
the  temperature  of  steam.  Accordingly  his  next  invention  was 
a  super-heating  condensing  steam-engine.  It  consisted  of  two 
sixteen-inch  cylinders  and  had  a  stroke  of  eighteen  inches.  The 
power  was  communicated  through  cog-wheels  to  a  double-acting 
pump,  thirty  inches  in  diameter  and  thirty  inches  stroke.  Steam 
was  generated  at  only  eight  pounds  above  the  atmosphere.  In 
"Watt's  time  five  to  ten  pounds  was  the  ordinary  pressure  and 
it  has  since  risen  as  high  as  seventy-five  or  even  one  hundred 
pounds.  "With  this  low  pressure  the  engine  proved  to  be  eco- 
nomical. But  here  again  arose  the  difficulty  attending  the  use  of 
liigh  temperatures.  The  lubricants  were  carbonized,  and  the 
pistons,  left  without  protection  from  friction,  were  rapidly  de- 
stroyed. 

In  the  intervals  of  his  study  of  new  motors,  Ericsson  found 
time  to  perfect  a  variety  of  minor  inventions.  Most  of  these 
appear  to  have  been  more  ingenious  than  profitable.  There 
was  at  least  one  exception.  This  was  a  sounding  instrument 
constructed  upon  the  principle  of  measuring  depths  by  the 
compression  of  air,  and  anticipating  by  many  years  the  similar 
device  for  which  credit  has  been  given  to  Sir  AVilliam  Thom- 
son.    It  was  patented  in  England  and  the  United  States,  sub- 


THE  HOT-AIR  ENGINE.  77 

seqnentlj  improved,  and  under  the  name  of  "  Ericsson's  Sea 
Lead ''  came  into  extensive  use.  Tliousands  were  sold  and  the 
instrument  stood  the  test  of  many  years'  trial  in  the  British  and 
American  mercantile  and  naval  marine,  and  was  especially  ap- 
proved of  by  the  hydrographic  bureaus  of  the  two  govern- 
ments. By  means  of  tallow,  held  in  the  usual  manner  by  a  cav- 
ity in  the  base,  it  was  determined  whether  the  lead  had  touched 
bottom  or  not,  and  a  dial  registered  the  depth  in  fathoms.  Sir 
"William  Thomson's  instrument,  like  that  of  Ericsson  before  it, 
is  based  upon  the  theory  that  the  pressure  of  the  sea  for  each 
succeeding  fathom  of  descent  increases  in  a  definite  and  practi- 
cally direct  ratio.  The  difference  in  the  two  instruments  is 
in  the  method  of  registering  the  pressure.  In  Ericsson's  in- 
strument this  is  done  by  noting  on  the  dial  the  height  to 
which  the  column  of  water  ascends  against  the  pressure  of  the 
air  ;  in  Sir  "William  Thomson's,  by  the  change  the  rising  water 
effects   in   the  color  of  tubes  lined  with  chromate  of  silver. 

The  anxiety  to  make  quick  passages,  and  the  temptation  to 
avoid  the  delay  occasioned  by  the  old  method  of  taking  sound- 
ings, resulted  in  the  loss  of  many  fine  ships.  As  soundings 
could  be  taken  by  the  new  lead  without  stopping  the  vessel,  it 
was  welcomed  with  enthusiasm  by  those  who  tested  it.  The 
British  Admiralty  referred  it  for  trial  to  Lieutenant  Philip 
Bisson,  R.  !N.  After  testing  it  for  nine  days,  at  depths  varying 
from  five  hundred  to  six  hundred  fathoms,  he  reported,  saying: 
"  Respecting  the  accuracy  of  the  instrument,  I  found  it  perfect ; 
and  as  to  simplicity  I  need  onh*  say  that  all  my  crew  soon  un- 
derstood its  use.  And  on  these  grounds  I  can  strongly  recom- 
mend this  instrument  as  being  of  great  practical  utility.  I  took 
accurate  soundings  in  sixty  fathoms  from  a  vessel  going  at  the 
rate  of  six  knots."  Sir  William  Thomson's  machine  has  since 
taken  soundings  in  one  hundred  and  twenty  fathoms  from  a 
vessel  moving  sixteen  knots  an  hour,  and  this  could  have  been 
done  with  Ericsson's.  Captain  Ogden,  L^  S.  S.  Dtcatur,  re- 
ported that  it  never  failed  to  give  correct  soundings,  and  that  it 
was  of  great  use  in  running  in  the  night  along  shoals  and  reefs 
in  the  Lidian  Ocean.  "  Xo  commander  who  has  ever  used 
one  of  them,"  he  said,  "  would  be  willing  to  be  without  it.'' 
Speaking  of  this  instrument,  Ericsson  says :  "  It  was  contrived 


78  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

Iq  conjunctiou  with  Francis  B.  Ogden,  Esq.,  U.  S.  Consul  at 
Liverpool,  a  gentleman  practically  skilled  as  a  sailor  and  known 
for  his  scientitic  attainments.  The  writer  has  great  pleasure 
in  according  to  Mr,  Ogden  the  principal  merit  of  this  very  use- 
ful instrument."  Doubtless  the  idea  was  Ogden's,  and  the  de- 
velopment of  the  mechanical  details  Ericsson's.  As  finally 
completed  it  was  known  as  "  Ericsson's  Improved  Sounding  In- 
strument," and  a  patent  for  improvements  on  it  was  taken  out 
as  late  as  September  23,  1863. 

AVhen  Ericsson  arrived  in  England  there  were  some  2,500 
miles  of  canals  in  operation  in  the  United  Kingdom,  and  by  the 
time  the  railroads  appeared  as  a  rival  to  check  their  growth, 
the  mileage  had  increased  to  4,000  miles.  The  traffic  upon 
these  artificial  water-ways,  connecting  the  natural  watercourses, 
was  an  important  factor  in  commercial  enterprise.  The  result 
of  the  Hainhill  trial  of  locomotives  had  greatly  alarmed  the 
canal  proprietors  as  to  the  future  of  their  property.  Ericsson 
sought  with  others  to  find  some  means  of  enlarging  the  capacity 
of  the  canals.  In  connection  with  C.  B,  Vignoles  he  patented 
a  plan  for  propelling  canal-boats  by  placing  on  board  a  steam- 
engine  and  using  it  to  set  in  motion  two  rollers,  pinching  be- 
tween them  a  flat  bar  of  iron  fastened  to  a  wooden  rail  running 
along  the  bank.  This  was  simply  the  application  of  a  device 
previously  invented  by  Ericsson,  and  designed  primarily  to  en- 
able locomotives  to  ascend  heavy  grades.  It  was  originally 
supposed  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  a  locomotive  to  draw 
trains  of  cars  even  up  ordinary  grades  without  some  such  de- 
vice, and  among  those  suggested  was  the  one  appearing  in  the 
illustration.  The  railroad  on  Mount  Cenis  was  constructed 
over  thirty  years  later  on  Ericsson's  plan.* 

In  1834  Ericsson  tested  on  the  Regent's  Canal  a  system  of 
propulsion  by  movable  shutters  resembling  Venetian  blinds. 
These  shutters  projected  beyond  the  stern  post  of  the  boat  and 
were  set  in  motion  by  a  steam  cylinder  placed  in  the  bottom  of 
the  vessel  parallel  with  the  keel.  The  speed  obtained  was 
satisfactory,  but  the  movement  of  the  shutters  jarred  the 
mechanism  so  much  that  it  could  not  be  made  to  work  continu- 
ously.    In  a  modification  of  this  system,  patented  in  1834,  the 

♦See  New  York  Times,  March  18,  18G6. 


THE   HOT-AIR  ENGINE. 


r79 


propelling  blades  were  operated  by  the  engine  and  the  jarring 
motion  was  thus  avoided.  This  was  applied  to  a  canal-boat  in 
France  with  economical  results. 

A  hydrostatic  weighing  machine  was  another  of  Ericsson's 
inventions  during  his  residence  in  England.  For  this  a  prize 
was  awarded  by  the  Society  of  Arts.  Its  inventor  had  given 
much  attention  to  hydrostatics  and  had  noted,  without  reason- 
ing concerning  it,  this  remarkable  peculiarity  of  fluids  :  "  with 


a  specific  gravity  only  one-twentieth  part  that  of  gold,  water 
holds,  bulk  for  bulk,  a  greater  quantity  of  heat,  and  while  so 
light  that  no  substance  once  immersed  in  it  can  ever  rise  from 
its  surface,  except  in  an  aeriform  state,  it  resists  pressure  to  a 
degree  nearly  equal  to  that  of  the  metals  themselves."  "Who 
can  prove,"  asks  Ericsson,  "  that  the  waters  on  the  surface  of 
the  globe  would  not  ages  ago  have  become  crusted  over  with 
solid  matter,  and  the  world  converted  into  a  parched  desert. 


80  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

but  for  its  remarkable  property  of  submerging  and  retaining 
every  solid  inanimate  substance,  permitting  only  a  partial  escape 
in  tbe  aeriform  state  ? "  Believing  that  a  fuller  knowledge 
should  be  acquired  of  the  mechanical  laws  governing  this  mys- 
terious combination  of  matter,  he  invented  an  apparatus  for 
testing  the  compressibility  of  water.  This  he  called  the  "hy- 
drostatic gauge."  The  measurement  was  effected  bv  means 
of  mercury  brought  into  contact  with  distilled  water  at  sixty 
degrees,  this  water  being  subjected  to  hydrostatic  pressure.  A 
compression  of  ^  q^,^^,),)  was  thus  readily  detected  in  a  column 
of  water  only  a  few  feet  high.  The  possibilities  of  this  instru- 
ment were  of  course  limited  to  the  strength  of  the  material  of 
which  it  was  composed.  This,  Ericsson  estimated  at  two  hun- 
dred thousand  pounds  per  square  inch  of  section.  As  he  had 
no  time  to  experiment  with  this  device,  to  determine  the  pre- 
cise relations  of  force  and  compression  characterizing  a  fluid, 
he  placed  it  in  the  London  Crystal  Palace  Exposition  of  1S51, 
with  a  hydraulic  machine  constructed  for  the  purpose  of  test- 
ing it. 

In  1836  Ericsson  patented  a  machine  for  cutting  files  auto- 
matically. One  model  was  put  into  operation  at  Shefiield  and 
another  in  Belgium.  Several  files  could  be  cut  at  one  time,  and 
in  cutting  taper  files  the  force  of  the  blow  was  proportioned  to 
the  width  and  depth  of  the  cut  at  different  parts  of  the  file. 
For  double-cut  files  two  machines  were  used,  the  bed  of  one 
inclining  to  the  right  and  that  of  the  other  to  the  left,  to  give 
proper  inclination  to  the  rows  of  teeth  crossing  one  another. 
For  ''  floats,"  or  files  with  a  single  row  of  teeth,  and  for  round 
and  half-round  files  a  straight  bed  was  used.  Two  beds  were 
employed  on  each  machine,  so  that  the  "blanks"  could  be  ad- 
justed upon  one  while  the  other  was  cutting.  The  machine 
made  two  hundred  and  forty  strokes  in  a  minute ;  three 
times  the  rate  of  handwork.  As  these  blows  were  of  uniform 
strength,  steel  of  uniform  hardness  was  required,  and  with  this 
excellent  files  could  be  made. 

Another  steam-engine  was  added  to  the  list  of  inventions 
about  this  time  and  applied  to  a  canal-boat  in  France,  a  patent 
being  taken  out  there,  as  well  as  in  England  and  the  United 
States.     It  was  a  "  semi-rotary  engine,"  the  steam  cylinder  con- 


THE   HOT-AIR   ENGINE.  81 

taining  a  piston  projecting  like  the  spoke  of  a  wheel  from  a 
central  axis.  This  piston  was  moved  back  and  forth  by  the  ac- 
tion of  the  steam  throuffh  an  arc  of  three  hundred  degrees: 
and  imparted  a  continuous  rotation  to  the  di'iving-shaft  by  the 
means  of  a  peculiar  application  of  "friction  disks."  It  was  in- 
genious but  not  economical.  A  semi-rotarj  engine  was  among 
the  ideas  patented  by  John  Watt  in  1TS2,  If  equal  power 
could  be  thus  obtained,  rotary  engines  would  have  the  great 
advantage  of  compactness  of  construction.  There  are  two  dif- 
ficulties :  first  in  securing  a  satisfactory  packing  of  the  piston, 
without  excessive  friction,  and  next  in  the  loss  of  effective 
pressure  in  consequence  of  the  resistance  of  the  steam  behind 
the  piston. 

Ericsson  had  now  been  ten  years  in  England,  and  during 
this  time  he  had  patented  thirty  inventions,  considered  by  him 
of  sufficient  importance  to  claim  a  place  in  a  list  I  have  before 
me  in  his  handwriting.  It  was  prepared  in  1863  and  includes 
just  one  hundred  inventions,  after  the  precedent  of  "  The  Cen- 
tury of  Invention,"  written  in  1655  by  Edward  Somerset,  Mar- 
quis of  Worcester,  who  in  his  turn  may  have  derived  his  idea 
from  the  "  Centuria  di  Secreti  Politici,  Cimichi,  e  Katurali,'' 
by  Francesco  Scarioni  of  Parma  (Venice,  1626). 

Very  little  is  to  be  learned  concerning  the  details  of  Erics- 
son's life  in  London.  We  find  him  recorded  on  his  patents  as 
an  engineer,  located,  October  10,  1834,  at  "  Union  Wharf,  Al- 
bany Street,  Eegents  Park  ;"  July  13,  1836,  at  "  Brook  Street, 
Kew  Road,"  and  on  July  6,  1839,  at  "  Cambridge  Terrace, 
Hyde  Park,"  He  was  an  agreeable  companion,  and  by  no 
means  unsocial  in  his  nature,  but  constant  occupation  gave 
him  small  opportunity  for  the  ordinary  intercourse  of  society. 
Still,  he  was  an  admirer  of  ladies  in  his  own  way  and  did  not 
scorn  to  trim  his  plumage  accordingly.  In  matters  of  dress 
he  was  at  that  time  very  particular  and  maintained  an  extensive 
wardrobe.  His  friendships  were  usually  the  result  of  profes- 
sional association,  and  through  them  he  secured  a  circle  of  ac- 
quaintance sufficiently  large  for  the  limited  need  of  social  in- 
tercourse, since  he  was  less  dependent  than  most  men  on  human 
friendship. 

Among  his  earliest  acquaintances  in  England  was  Mr. 
6 


82  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

Charles  Seidler.  The  wife  of  Mr.  Seidler  had  a  half -sister, 
Amelia  Byam.  When  Ericsson  first  knew  her  brother-in-law, 
Amelia  was  a  child  of  ten  years.  She  grew  into  a  lovely 
woman,  the  most  fascinating  he  had  ever  seen,  as  he  was  accus- 
tomed to  say,  intelligent,  generous  in  disposition,  cultivated, 
and  a  fine  musician,  as  well  as  very  handsome.  Her  fatlier, 
Edward  Byam,  was  the  second  son  of  Sir  Charles  Byam,  at  one 
time  British  Commissioner  for  Antigua,  and  her  uncle.  Rev. 
Richard  Burke  Byam,  was  for  forty  years  rector  of  Kew  and 
Petersham,  where  he  confirmed  several  members  of  the  royal 
family. 

When  Amelia  Byam  was  nineteen  years  old,  and  John 
Ericsson  thirty-three,  they  were  married  by  license,  on  October 
15,  1836,  by  the  incumbent  of  St.  John's  Church,  Padding- 
ton.  The  witnesses  signing  their  names  to  the  register  of  the 
church  were  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Seidler  and  their  daughter ;  Mrs. 
Seidler's  sister,  Louisa  Browning;  John  Braithwaite,  Ericsson's 
partner;  and  "  John  Milner."  Referring  to  this  occasion  thirty 
years  after,  the  bridegroom  said  :  "  I  have  not  been  in  a  church 
since  March,  1826,  except  once  in  London,  when  on  a  certain 
morning  I  committed  the  indiscretion  of  not  only  going  inside 
the  holy  room,  but  of  also  appearing  before  the  altar  and  there 
giving  a  promise  difiicult  to  keep." 

Speaking  of  one  of  his  rivals,  he  said  :  "  That  the  beautiful 
and  musical  Miss  Byam  preferred  the  foreign  engineer  hurt 
the  proud  banker's  vanity  exceedingly,  as  he  was  one  of  the 
handsomest  men  in  London." 

A  niece  of  Mrs.  Ericsson  married,  in  1868,  Colonel,  afterward 
Lieutenant-General,  Sir  Trevor  Chute,  K.C.B.,  of  the  British 
army,  and  one  of  the  Chutes  of  "  Chute  Hall,"  England.  She 
appears  frequently  in  Ericsson's  domestic  correspondence  as 
"  the  magnificent  Lady  Chute,"  descriptive  in  this  case,  no  doubt, 
but  not  necessarily  so,  for  he  was  accustomed  to  relieve  the  strain 
of  exactitude  required  in  his  daily  pursuits  by  indulging  in  hy- 
perbole when  he  found  occasion  to  deal  with  ladies.  His  na- 
tive Swedish-is  said  to  lend  itself  to  this  form  of  expression 
more  readily  than  any  other  European  language,  except  the 
Spanish.  Lady  Chute  lived  in  New  Zealand,  and  of  Erics- 
son it  must  be  said  that  his  admiration  for  women  was  in  in- 


THE  HOT-AIR   ENGINE.  83 

verse  ratio  to  their  social  demands  upon  him.  He  was  willing 
enough  to  be  entertained  by  them  when  the  humor  pleased 
him,  but  quite  unwilling  to  assume  any  responsibility  for  them 
necessitating  the  occupation  of  his  valuable  time.  He  was  him- 
self accustomed  to  say  that  he  was  not  fitted  for  domestic 
life. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  SCREW   PROPELLER. 

Fortunate  Result  of  the  Rainliill  Contest. — Ericsson's  Viking  Blood. — 
Studies  in  Naval  Engineering  and  Gunnery. — Relations  to  Captain 
Robert  F.  Stockton.— The  Screw  Propeller.— The  First  Steam  Tug. 
— Early  Experiments  with  the  Screw. 

"VT EITHER  the  comments  of  the  critics  nor  the  failure  of  his 
-»^^  plans  could  discourage  Ericsson's  belief  in  the  principle 
of  his  hot-air  engine.  In  it  he  proposed  to  substitute  air  for 
water,  as  a  medium  for  transferring  heat  into  power,  and  thus 
escape  the  danger  attending  the  explosive  properties  of  steam. 
But  what  particularly  fascinated  his  imagination  was  the  idea 
that  he  could,  by  the  use  of  his  "  regenerator,"  or  respirator,  as 
it  should  more  properly  be  called,  save  the  waste  of  heat  at- 
tending its  use  in  the  steam-engine.  Brande  describes  the 
respirator  as  "  an  instrument  covering  the  mouth  with  a  net- 
work of  fine  wire,  through  which  persons  of  weak  lungs  can 
breathe  without  injury.  The  wire  being  warmed  by  the  breath, 
tempers  the  cold  air  from  without."  * 

A  similar  net-work  of  wire  was  used  in  a  second  caloric  en- 
gine contrived  by  Ericsson  in  1838,  the  "  orifice  through  which 
the  air  to  be  expanded  by  heat  into  working  force  passed  in 
and  out  being  covered  by  a  metal  box  wherein  sheets  of  wire 
gauze  were  closely  packed,  their  meshes  receiving  heat  from 
the  warm  air  passing  out  and  transferring  it  to  the  cold  air 
coming  in. 

Theoretically,  this  "  regenerator "  would  prevent  all  waste 
of  heat,  except  such  as  was  lost  by  radiation  from  the  machine 
itself ;  practically  this  result  was  only  partially  accomplished. 
The  name  given  to  the  engine  indicated  that  Ericsson  was  at  this 
date  possessed  by  the  idea  which,  as  Professor  Rankine  tells  us, 

*  Braude'a  Dictionary  of  Science.  Literature,  and  Art. 


THE   SCEEW   PROPELLER.  86 

"  has  been  the  chief  impediment  to  the  progress  of  the  accurate 
knowledge  of  the  laws  of  the  relations  between  heat  and  motive 
power  " — the  idea  that  the  phenomena  of  heat  are  caused  by 
the  presence,  in  greater  or  less  quantity,  of  a  substance  called 
"  caloric."  *  Heat  was  not  then  recognized  as  a  mere  form  of 
activity,  and  no  account  was  taken  of  the  large  amount  of  heat 
necessarily  transformed  into  work.  No  sufficient  provision  was 
made  in  the  furnaces  for  this  loss  of  power,  and  unexpected  dif- 
ficulties were  met  with  in  heating  at  all  a  substance  so  little 
affected  by  radiant  heat  as  air.  Hence,  the  inventor  did  not  at 
this  time  go  beyond  the  construction  of  a  model  engine  for  the 
purposes  of  experiment. 

In  the  interval  of  five  years  between  this  experiment  and 
the  preceding  one,  with  the  first  caloric  engine,  in  1833,  Erics- 
son had  made  good  use  of  his  studies  into  the  conservation  of 
heat  by  improving  the  steam-engine,  so  as  to  lessen  the  loss  of 
heat  attending  the  process  of  condensing  the  waste  steam  into 
water.  With  these  labors  he  found  time  for  others,  destined  to 
produce  even  more  important  results. 

Eeviewing  his  life  toward  its  close,  he  was  accustomed  to 
say  that  his  failure  to  secure  the  much-coveted  prize  in  the 
Rainhill  locomotive  contest  was  most  fortunate  for  him.  With 
success  would  have  come  immediate  prosperity  and  correspond- 
ing temptation  ;  as  it  was,  his  struggle  with  adverse  fortune 
continued  until  his  blood  was  cooler,  and  the  heat  and  passion 
of  youth  had  in  a  measure  abated.  He  was  naturally  an  in- 
tense man  in  every  way,  and  when  the  full  tide  of  life  poured 
through  his  veins  they  were  fairly  bursting  under  the  constant 
strain  of  a  vigorous  vitality  that  must  find  relief  in  some  form 
of  activity.  With  his  great  mental  power  and  intense  nervous 
force  were  combined  enormous  muscular  strength  and  corre- 
sponding physical  passion.  He  was,  in  short,  in  every  respect, 
a  high- pressure  engine. 

The  taste  for  strong  drink  is  a  Swedish  characteristic,  and  in 
his  younger  years  Ericsson  shared  it,  though  he  never  permitted 
it  to  master  him ;  still,  until  he  changed  his  habit,  when  he  was 
about  fifty  years  old,  he  was  accustomed  to  take  his  brandy  and 
his  heavy  sherry,  if  not  immoderately  or  imprudenth',  at  least 
*  Rankine's  Manual  of  the  Steam  Engine  and  other  Prime  Movers.     1861. 


86  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

with  studious  regularity.  With  his  ardent  temperament  he 
felt  that  idleness,  or  the  temptation  of  leisurely  social  inter- 
course, would  have  put  a  lion  in  his  path,  for  it  was  the  time 
of  high  living  and  hard  drinking  in  England.  From  this  pos- 
sible danger,  as  well  as  from  other  temptations,  he  was  saved 
by  the  strain  of  constant  occupation. 

Xaturally  amiable  and  generous,  Ericsson  was,  at  the  same 
time,  a  man  of  ungovernable  temper.  Like  the  Scandinavian 
hero,  Odin,  "he  looked  so  fair  and  noble  when  he  sat  with  his 
friends  that  every  mind  was  delighted,  but  M'hen  he  was  in  a 
heat  then  he  looked  fierce  to  his  foes."  He  was  controlled  by 
a  strong  sense  of  justice,  but  he  did  not  readily  brook  opposi- 
tion, and  he  had  his  experiences  of  the  "  Berserk  fury,"  such  as 
compelled  the  Xorse  warriors  of  old  to  bite  their  shields,  and 
to  wrestle  with  the  stones  and  trees,  lest  they  slay  their  friends 
in  their  rage.  "  There  was  no  king  who  would  not  give  them 
what  they  wanted  rather  than  suffer  their  overbearing ;  "  *  and 
they  were  few  who  cared  to  encounter  John  Ericsson  when  the 
Berserk  fury  was  on  him. 

At  the  time  when  Ericsson  was  first  busied  with  his  caloric 
experiments  steam  navigation  upon  the  ocean  was  opening  the 
way  to  new  conquests  over  space.  In  1807,  on  August  Tth, 
the  Kaiherine  of  GJerTnont^  nicknamed  by  the  derisive 
"  Fulton'' s  Folly, ''^  left  her  wharf  at  Kew  York,  followed  by 
taunting  shouts  of  "  God  help  you,  Bobby  !  "  "  Bring  us  back 
a  chip  off  the  Korth  Pole,"  "  A  fool  and  his  money,"  etc., 
and  steamed  up  the  Korth  River  to  set  the  farmers  on  its 
banks  fleeing  home  with  the  tidings  that  the  devil  was  sailing 
up  the  Hudson  "  on  a  saw-mill." 

In  1832,  the  year  before  the  caloric  engine  appeared,  came 
the  first  wild  suggestion  of  the  possibility  of  establishing  a 
reerular  line  of  steamers  between  England  and  America.  In 
1838,  when  the  improved  caloric  engine  was  finished,  the  pio- 
neer of  the  ocean  line,  the  Great  Western,  crossed  the  Atlantic 
in  fifteen  days;  just  equalling  the  time  of  the  sailing  ship 
Pennsylvania,  which  three  months  before  had  made  "  the 
shortest  passage  as  yet." 

To  Ericsson  seems  to  have  been  apparent  ten  years  earliei 

*  Vide  Du  Cliaillu's  Viking  Age. 


THE  SCREW  PROPELLER.  87 

what  did  not  become  clear  to  others  until  this  experiment  in 
ocean  navigation,  that  steamers  could  not  compete  in  a  fair  con- 
test with  sailing  vessels  until  there  was  a  radical  revolution  in 
the  means  of  applying  power.  Especially  did  he  see  that  the 
objections  taken  by  the  old  salts  to  the  use  of  steam  for  naval 
vessels  were  well  founded,  so  long  as  the  imprisoned  steam 
was  in  danger  of  being  let  loose  by  exploding  shell,  and  the 
clumsy  paddle-wheels,  with  tlie  machinery  coupled  to  them,  to 
be  torn  to  pieces  when  most  needed  in  order  to  escape  the  per- 
ils of  battle.  Some  time  previous  to  1833  he  was  called  upon 
by  a  carrying  company  in  London  to  conduct  numerous  trials 
with  submerged  propellers  on  the  London  &  Birmingham 
Canal,  and  we  find  evidence  that  he  was  certainly  conducting 
such  experiments  as  early  as  1833.  Describing  his  subsequent 
progress,  he  said,  in  a  letter  to  John  Bourne,  published  in  the 
London  Engineer,  December  31,  1875  : 

1835.  Designed  a  rotary  propeller  to  be  actuated  by  steam  power, 
consisting  of  a  series  of  segments  of  a  screw,  attached  to  a  thin  broad 
hoop  supported  by  arms  so  twisted  as  also  to  form  part  of  a  screw.  The 
propeller  subsequently  applied  to  the  steamship  Princeton  was  identical 
with  my  said  design  of  1835.  Even  the  mode  adopted  to  determine,  by 
geometrical  construction,  the  twist  of  the  blades  and  arms  of  the  Prince- 
ton's and  other  proj)ellers  was  identical  with  my  design  of  the  year  last 
mentioned. 

1836.  Constructed  a  small  propeller  boat,  ojDerated  by  steam  power, 
in  a  large  circular  cistern,  for  the  satisfaction  of  certain  parties  intending 
to  take  an  interest  in  my  invention,  and  to  furnish  means  for  securing 
letters  patent  for  the  same. 

1837.  Designed  an  engine  for  imparting  motion  directly  to  the  screw 
propeller  shaft,  consisting  of  two  steam  cylinders  placed  diagonally  at 
right  angles  to  each  other,  the  connecting-rods  of  which  were  coupled  to 
a  common  crank-pin.  This  engine  was  applied,  in  the  year  1838,  to  the 
iron  screw  steamer  Roiert  F.  Stockton,  which  crossed  the  Atlantic,  under 
canvas,  1839,  and  was  afterward  employed  as  a  tug-boat  on  the  river 
Delaware  for  upward  of  a  quarter  of  a  century. 

This  last  was  the  first  direct-acting  screw  propeller  engine 
ever  built. 

The  large  circular  cistern  here  referred  to  was  one  of  the 
public  baths  in  London.  A  steam  boiler  was  placed  over  this 
and  steam  from  it  conducted  through  a  pipe  to  a  small  engine 


88  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

set  in  the  little  boat.  The  accuracy  of  the  inventor's  theoreti' 
cal  calculation  was  shown  by  the  complete  success  of  the  ex- 
periments. On  the  first  trial  the  toy  boat,  less  than  two  feet 
in  length,  as  soon  as  the  steam  was  turned  on  started  on  a 
voyage  around  the  basin  at  the  rate  of  more  than  three  miles 
an  hour.  This  was  an  instance  of  the  nice  application  of  theory 
to  practice  for  which  Ericsson's  career  was  remarkable.  If  he 
could  not  always  control  the  conditions  of  economical  success, 
he  never  proposed  mechanical  absurdities  or  impossibilities. 

His  chief  rival  for  the  honor  of  introducing  the  screw, 
Francis  Pettit  Smith,  was  at  this  time  striving  to  work  out  the 
problem  of  using  the  old  device  of  an  Archimedean  screw  by 
"  rule  of  thumb,"  for  he  was  a  farmer  and  not  an  engineer  or 
mechanic.  Only  by  the  accidental  breaking  of  the  long  screw 
he  was  using  did  he  discover  that  he  was  on  the  wrong  track. 
His  labors  undoubtedly  did  much  to  smooth  the  way  for  the 
early  introduction  of  the  propeller,  and  up  to  the  time  that 
Smith  and  Ericsson  appeared  no  permanent  or  practical  prog- 
ress had  been  made  in  screw  propulsion.  In  1836,  when  their 
patents  were  taken  out,  there  was  no  vessel  propelled  by  a  screw 
in  existence.  Experiments,  indeed,  had  been  made  in  England, 
in  America,  and  in  France,  showing  that  by  means  of  a  screw, 
a  vessel  might  be  driven  through  the  water.  But  the  recol- 
lection of  these  experiments  had  in  a  great  measure  died  out, 
and  what  remained  of  it  operated  rather  as  a  discouragement 
than  a  provocative  to  enterprise,  since  it  carried  the  presump- 
tion that  if  the  mode  of  propelling  by  the  screw  had  been  found 
satisfactory  it  would  not  have  been  relinquished.* 

Shortly  after  Ericsson's  patent  was  granted,  the  Francis  B. 
Ogden,  a  vessel  45  feet  long,  8  feet  beam,  and  3  feet  draught, 
was  built  for  the  purpose  of  effectually  testing  the  power  of  the 
screw,  and  launched  upon  the  Thames  in  the  spring  of  1837. 
Two  propellers,  5  feet  3  inches  in  diameter,  were  so  fitted  to 
the  stern  of  this  vessel  that  either  could  be  used.  "  So  suc- 
cessful was  the  experiment  that  when  steam  was  turned  on  for 
the  first  time,  the  boat  at  once  moved  at  a  speed  of  upward  of 
ten  miles  an  hour,  without  a  single  alteration  being  required 
in  her  machinery.  This  miniature  steamer  had  such  power, 
*  Treatise  on  the  Screw  Propeller.     Bj  John  Bourne,  C.E.     London,  1852. 


THE  SCREW   PROPELLER.  89 

too,  that  she  towed  a  schooner  of  one  hundred  and  forty  tons 
burden  at  the  rate  of  seven  miles  an  hour,  and  the  American 
packet  ship  Toronto  at  the  rate  of  more  than  four  and  a  half 
knots  an  hour  against  the  tide."  "This  fact,"  Mr.  Sargent 
tells  us,  "  excited  no  little  interest  among  the  boatmen  of  the 
Thames,  who  were  astonished  at  the  sight  of  this  novel  craft 
moving  against  wind  and  tide  without  any  visible  agency  of 
propulsion,  and,  ascribing  to  it  some  supernatural  origin,  they 
united  in  giving  it  the  name  of  the  Flying  Devil.  But  the 
engineers  of  London  regarded  the  experiment  with  silent  neg- 
lect." * 

In  the  summer  of  1837,  Ericsson  invited  the  Lords  of  the 
British  Admiralty  to  take  an  excursion  in  tow  of  his  experimen- 
tal steamboat.  The  Ogden  was  taken  to  Somerset  House,  the 
headquarters  of  the  British  ISTavy,  and  lashed  alongside  the  Ad- 
miralty barge  containing  the  First  Lord,  Sir  Charles  Adams ; 
the  Surveyor  of  the  Navy,  Sir  William  Symonds ;  the  Ilydro- 
grapher.  Captain  Beaufort,  and  Sir  "William  Edward  Parry,  the 
hero  of  five  expeditions  to  the  Arctic  seas,  who  had  recently  as- 
sumed the  duties  of  the  newly  created  office  of  "  Comptroller  of 
Steam  Machinery  for  the  Royal  Navy.''  Other  gentlemen  of 
scientific  or  naval  distinction  accompanied  this  party.  The 
results  of  the  expedition  are  best  told  in  the  language  of  Mr. 
John  O.  Sargent,  the  friend  of  Ericsson  for  half  a  century. 
He  described  it  while  the  circumstances  were  still  fresh  in  recol- 
lection, in  his  lecture  delivered  before  the  Boston  Lyceum  in 
December,  1843,*  as  follows  : 

In  the  antioipation  of  a  severe  scrutiny  from  so  distinguished  a 
personage  as  tlie  Chief  Constructor  of  the  British  Navy,  the  inventor 
had  carefully  prepared  plans  of  his  new  mode  of  propulsion,  which  were 
spread  on  the  damask  cloth  of  the  magnificent  barge.  To  his  utter  as- 
tonishment, as  we  may  well  imagine,  this  scientific  gentleman  did  not 
appear  to  take  the  slightest  interest  in  his  explanations.  On  the  con- 
trary, with  those  expressive  shrugs  of  the  shoulder  and  shakes  of  the 
head  which  convey  so  much  to  the  bystander  without  absolutely  com- 
mitting the  actor,  with  an  occasional  sly,  mysterious,  undertone  remark 
to  his  colleagues,  he  indicated  very  plainly  that  though  his  humanity 
would  not  permit  him  to  give  a  worthy  man  cause  for  so  much  unhappi- 

*  Sargent's  Lecture  on  the  Late  Improvements  in  Steam  Navigation,  etc. 


90  LIFE    OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

ness,  yet  that  "  he  conlcl  an'  if  he  would  "  demonstrate  by  a  single  word 
the  utter  futility  of  the  whole  invention. 

Meanwhile  the  little  steamer,  with  her  precious  charge,  proceeded 
at  a  steady  progress  of  ten  miles  an  hour,  through  the  arches  of  the  lofty 
Southwark  and  London  Bridges,  toward  Limehouse,  and  the  steam- 
engine  manufactory  of  the  Messrs.  Seaward.  Their  lordships  having 
landed  and  inspected  the  huge  piles  of  ill-shaped  cast-iron,  misdenom- 
inated  marine  engines,  intended  for  some  of  his  Majesty's  steamers, 
with  a  look  at  theii-  favorite  propelling  appai-atus,  the  Morgan  paddle- 
wheel,  they  re-embarked  and  were  safely  returned  to  Somerset  House, 
by  the  disregarded,  noiseless,  and  unseen  propeller  of  the  new  steamer. 

On  parting,  Sir  Charles  Adams,  with  a  sympathizing  air,  sliook  the 
inventor  cordially  by  the  hand,  and  thanked  him  for  the  trouble  he  had 
been  at  in  showing  him  and  his  friends  this  interesting  experiment  ;  add- 
ing, that  he  feared  he  had  put  himself  to  too  great  an  expense  and  trou- 
ble on  the  occasion.  Notwithstanding  this  somewhat  ominous  finale  of 
the  day's  excursion,  Ericsson  felt  confident  that  their  lordships  could 
not  fail  to  perceive  the  gi-eat  imj^ortance  of  the  invention.  To  his  sur- 
prise, however,  a  few  days  afterward,  a  friend  put  into  his  hands  a  letter 
written  by  Captain  Beaufort,  at  the  suggestion,  probably,  of  the  Lords 
of  the  Admiralty,  in  which  that  gentleman,  who  had  himself  witnessed 
the  experiment,  exjiressed  regi-et  to  state  that  their  lordships  had  cer- 
tainly been  veiy  much  disappointed  at  its  result.  The  reason  for  the  dis- 
apjiointment  was  altogether  inexplicable  to  the  inventor,  for  the  speed 
attained  at  this  trial  far  exceeded  anything  that  had  ever  been  accom- 
plished by  any  paddle-wheel  steamer  on  so  small  a  scale. 

An  accident  soon  relieved  his  astonishment,  and  explained  the  mys- 
terious givings-out  of  Sir  "William  Symonds,  alluded  to  in  our  notice  of 
the  excursion.  The  subject  having  been  started  at  a  dinner-table  when 
a  friend  of  Ericsson  was  present,  Sir  William  ingeniously  and  ingenu- 
ously remarked,  that  "even  if  the  propeller  had  the  power  of  pro- 
pelling a  vessel,  it  would  be  found  altogether  useless  in  practice, 
because  the  power  being  applied  in  the  stemi  it  would  be  absolutely  impos- 
sible to  make  the  vessel  steer."  It  may  not  be  obvious  to  everyone  how 
our  naval  philosopher  derived  his  conclusion  from  his  premises ;  but  his 
hearers  doubtless  readily  acquiesced  in  the  oracular  proposition,  and 
were  much  amused  at  the  idea  of  undertaking  to  steer  a  vessel  when 
the  power  was  applied  in  her  stem. 

But  we  may  well  excuse  the  lords  of  the  British  Admiralty  for 
exhibiting  no  interest  in  the  invention  when  we  reflect  that  the  engi- 
neering corps  of  the  empire  were  arrayed  in  opposition  to  it ;  alleging 
that  it  was  constructed  upon  erroneous  principles,  and  full  of  practical 
defects,  and  regarding  its  failure  as  too  certain  to  authorize  any  specu- 
lations even  of  its  success.  The  plan  was  specially  submitted  to  many 
distinguished  engineers,  and  was  publicly  discussed  in  the  scientific  jour- 
nals ;  and  there  was  no  one  but  the  inventor  who  refused  to  acquiesce 


THE  SCREW   PROPELLER.  91 

in  the  truth  of  the  numerous  demonstrations  proving  the  vast  loss  of 
mechanical  power  which  must  attend  this  proposed  substitute  for  the 
old-fashioned  paddle-wheel. 


Mr.  Francis  B.  Ogden  was  a  gentleman  well  known  at  that 
time  to  travelling  Americans,  as  Consul  of  the  United  States  at 
Liverpool.  He  was  a  liberal-minded  man  and  one  whose  prac- 
tical experience  in  steam  navigation  made  him  an  invaluable  ally 
to  Ericsson.  Though  'not  an  engineer  bj  profession,  Mr.  Ogden 
had  been  distinguished,  Mr.  Sargent  tells  us,  "  for  his  eminent 
attainments  in  mechanical  science,  and  is  entitled  to  the  honor 
of  having  first  applied  the  important  principle  of  the  expansive 
power  of  steam,  and  of  having  originated  the  idea  of  employ- 
ing right-angular  cranks  on  marine  engines.  His  practical  ex- 
perience and  long  study  of  the  subject — for  he  was  the  first 
to  stem  the  waters  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi,  and  the  first 
to  navigate  the  ocean  by  the  power  of  steam  alone — enabled  him 
at  once  to  perceive  the  truth  of  the  inventor's  demonstrations  ; 
but  not  only  did  he  admit  their  truth,  he  also  joined  Cap- 
tain Ericsson  in  constructing  the  first  experimental  boat,"  and 
to  this  boat  his  name  was  given. 

In  Mr.  Ogden  Ericsson  found  an  attentive  listener  to  his 
engineering  ideas,  and  a  warm  sympathizer  with  projects  so 
novel  that  they  confused  the  mind  of  the  average  Englishman, 
who  hates  a  thing  merely  because  it  is  new.  To  a  man  pur- 
sued almost  to  his  death  by  the  tribe  of  the  'twill-never-doists, 
acquaintance  with  such  a  man  as  Ogden  was  like  the  shadow  of 
a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land.  "  How  I  hate  that  expression  '  it 
will  never  do,' "  says  Hayden — the  unfortunate  artist  to  whom 
England  owes  its  possession  of  the  Elgin  marbles — in  his  "Lec- 
tures on  Painting  and  Design ; "  "  it  has  always  been  the  fa- 
vorite watch-cry  of  those  in  all  ages  and  all  countries  who  look 
on  all  schemes  for  the  advancement  of  mankind  as  indirect  re- 
flections on  the  narrowness  of  their  own  comprehensions." 

This  was  not  Ogden's  first  venture  with  Ericsson,  for  I  find 
the  record  of  an  obligation  he  entered  into  in  1831,  binding 
himself  in  the  penal  sum  of  £20,000  as  assignee  for  Ericsson 
of  the  rights  in  the  United  States  "  to  a  certain  invention, 
being  an  improvement  in  the  application  of  steam  for  mechan- 


92  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

ical  purposes."  This  is  evidently  the  steam-drura,  in  which 
William  Laird  also  invested.  Ogden,  being  a  citizen,  took  out 
the  patent  in  the  United  States,  and  assigned  to  Ericsson  one- 
half  interest.  It  was  through  Mr.  Ogden,  too,  that  Ericsson  ap- 
plied at  "Washington,  in  1S3T,  for  a  patent  for  his  propeller. 

"  One  thing  is  forever  good  :  that  one  thing  is  success." 
"  "Will  it  pa  J  ?  "  is  the  supreme  test  of  success  in  contemporary 
appreciation  of  mechanical  improvement^,  and  Ericsson's  inven- 
tions, as  we  have  seen,  did  not  always  pay.  Sometimes  because 
the  result  he  sought  could  be  more  economically  accomplished 
in  other  ways,  if  less  efficiently,  and  as  often  because  a  long  ed- 
ucational process  was  required  to  convince  those  he  wished  to 
benefit  of  their  need  of  what  his  genius  had  provided  for  them. 
The  reception,  no  less  than  the  conception,  of  new  ideas  neces- 
sitates evolution,  and  this  is  a  weary  world  for  those  who  see 
mucli  beyond  their  fellows.  Ericsson's  investments  in  "  fu- 
tures," as  they  would  be  called  on  the  exchanges,  were  too 
heavy,  and  the  financial  difficulties  resulting  from  this  impru- 
dence were  increased  by  the  enforcement  of  an  obligation  as- 
sumed on  behalf  of  a  friend.  The  firm  of  Braithwaite  & 
Ericsson  had  failed,  and  the  bailiffs  were  on  the  track  of  the 
junior  member.  So,  for  a  time,  he  enjoyed  the  hospitalities 
of  "  The  Fleet "  as  a  foreign  debtor.  In  the  year  1S37,  so 
disastrous  to  many  others,  he  took  the  benefit  of  the  "  act  for 
the  relief  of  insolvent  debtors,"  and  secured  his  discharge  in 
bankruptcy. 

"We  had  in  our  navy  at  this  time,  a  sailor,  Kobert  F.  Stock- 
ton, who  united  qualities  rarely  found  in  combination.  An  ac- 
complished and  experienced  officer,  showing  an  intelligent  inter- 
est in  all  that  concerned  his  profession,  he  was  at  the  same  time 
a  man  of  fortune  and  family  influence,  as  well  as  an  important 
factor  in  the  politics  of  his  native  State  of  Xew  Jersey,  after- 
ward representing  it  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  Lieu- 
tenant Stockton  was  buildinjr  the  Delaware  ct  Ttaritan  Canal, 
and  had  invested  in  it  his  fortune,  and  that  of  his  family.  The 
financial  difficulties  of  1S37  compelled  him  to  visit  England  to 
procure  the  means  for  completing  the  canal.  There  lie  made 
the  acquaintance  of  Ericsson,  no  doubt  through  Mr.  Ogden, 
who  was  a  fellow-Jerseyman,  and  a  representative,  as  Stockton 


THE   SCREW   PEOPELLEK.  93 

himself  was,  of  a  family  honorably  identified  for  several  gene- 
rations with  the  history  of  the  State.  Robert  Ogden,  the 
grandfather  of  one,  was  a  member  of  the  Continental  Congress, 
and  the  ancestor  of  the  other  was  one  of  the  signers  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence. 

Thus  it  happened  that  Ericsson  and  Stockton  were  brought 
together  just  at  the  time  when  the  inventor  of  the  propeller  was 
most  in  need  of  influential  assistance  to  enable  him  to  develop, 
in  some  more  congenial  clime,  schemes  in  danger  of  perishing 
under  the  chilling  influence  of  British  hostility  and  indiffer- 
ence. To  Stockton  the  State  of  New  Jersey  is  indebted  for 
the  early  development  of  her  railroad  and  canal  system,  and 
his  experience  in  this  work,  supplementing  his  naval  training, 
led  him  to  give  much  attention  to  the  construction  of  steam 
engines,  and  the  subject  of  applying  steam  to  war  vessels  at  a 
time  when  most  naval  officers  were  still  insisting  upon  the  ad- 
vantages of  sails. 

Stockton  was  induced  to  accompany  Ericsson  in  one  of  his 
excursions  on  the  Thames  on  the  Francis  B.  Ogden^  and  at 
once  appreciated  the  value  of  the  invention  received  with  such 
cool  indifference  by  the  officials  of  the  British  Kavy.  He  com- 
prehended immediately  the  revolution  it  was  destined  to  work 
in  naval  warfare,  and  this  was  sufficient  to  fix  his  attention 
without  reference  to  its  commercial  value. 

His  perceptions  were  quick,  his  self-reliance  was  unlimited, 
and  he  was  nearly  as  energetic  as  Ericsson  himself  in  carrying 
out  a  plan  once  conceived.  A  single  trip  from  London  Bridge 
to  Greenwich  was  sufficient  to  induce  him  to  at  once  order  from 
the  inventor  two  iron  boats  for  the  United  States,  to  be  fitted 
with  his  steam  machinery  and  propeller. 

"  I  do  not  want,"  said  Captain  Stockton,  "  the  opinions  of 
your  scientific  men  ;  what  I  have  seen  this  day  satisfies  me." 

A  dinner  at  Greenwich  ended  this  excursion  and  Stock- 
ton, who  added  oratory  to  his  other  accomplishments,  made  a 
speech  declaring  to  Ericsson,  "  We'll  make  your  name  ring  on 
the  Delaware,  as  soon  as  we  get  your  propeller  there." 

Eeturning  to  the  United  States,  Stockton  was,  in  December, 
1838,  promoted  to  captain  and  ordered  to  the  Mediterranean  as 
fleet-captain  on  board  the  flag-ship  of  Commodore  Hull.     He 


94  LIFE   OF   JOHN    ERICSSON. 

was  also  made  bearer  of  despatches  to  the  American  Minister 
to  the  court  of  St.  James,  and  improved  the  opportunity  of  his 
visit  to  England  to  thoroughly  inform  himself  as  to  the  condi- 
tion of  the  marine  armaments  of  Great  Britain.  He  also  found 
time  to  witness  the  trial  of  the  screw  steamer  built  for  him, 
the  Riibert  F.  StocJdoii^  and  for  further  consultation  with 
his  friends  Ogden  and  Ericsson.  It  would  have  been  im- 
possible to  find  two  men  better  fitted  to  assist  Ericsson  in  the 
realization  of  his  ambitious  schemes  with  reference  to  marine 
propulsion,  for  the  studies  and  experience  enabling  them  to 
comprehend  his  plans  had  not  closed  their  minds  to  new  sug- 
gestions. "Stockton  was,  moreover/' as  Philip  Hone  says  in 
his  "Diary,"  "not  one  of  the  timid  sort,  and  did  not  often 
find  his  modesty  crossing  the  path  of  his  undertakings."* 

The  Stoclion  was  launched  in  the  river  Mersey  on  July 
T,  183S,  and  immediately  fitted  with  her  double  cylinder, 
direct-acting  engine  and  the  patent  spiral  propeller.  After 
several  highly  satisfactory  trials  with  lier  at  Liverpool,  she  was, 
on  January  12,  1830,  tried  on  the  river  Thames,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  Captain  Stockton,  Mr.  Ogden,  and  about  thirty  other 
gentlemen  invited  to  witness  her  performance.  The  London 
Times  of  that  date  mentions  as  present  several  distinguished 
British  and  Swedish  naval  officers,  Mr.  Vignoles,  and  other 
engineers,  and  Major-General  Sir  John  Fox  Burgoyne — a  nat- 
ural son  of  the  Burgoyne  of  Saratoga  surrender,  the  engineer- 
in-chief  in  the  attack  on  Xew  Orleans,  repulsed  by  Jackson, 
and  the  father  of  a  son  destined,  thirty  years  later,  to  fall  a 
victim,  as  a  captain  in  the  British  navy,  to  Cowper  Coles's  at- 
tempt to  rival  Eiicsson  in  marine  construction.  Sir  John  was 
at  this  time  Chairman  of  the  Board  of  Public  "Works  and  Com- 
missioner of  Steam  Navigation,  etc.,  in  Leland. 

The  results  obtained  with  this  vessel  were  considered  at  the 
time  most  extraordinary.  The  T'mus  described  them  at  length, 
announced  that  they  appeared  "  quite  conclusive  as  to  the 
success  of  this  important  improvement  in  steam  navigation," 
and  forecasted  "important  changes  in  steam  navigation"  from 
its  introduction.  The  Hobert  F.  Stockton  was  an  iron  steam- 
boat, seventy  feet  in  length  on  deck  and  ten  feet  beam,  drawing 

♦  Diarj  of  Pliilip  Hone,  vol.  i.,  p.  273. 


THE  SCREW  PROPELLER.  95 

three  feet  of  water  and  propelled  bj  a  fifty-horse  power  engine. 
Of  such  engines  the  Times  said  : 

They  may  be  made  much  stronger  and  more  compact  than  ordinary 
marine-engines,  in  consequence  of  the  power  being  applied  directly  to 
the  shaft  which  works  very  near  the  bottom.  This  for  sea-going  vessels 
will  be  very  important,  and  their  original  cost  may  be  considerably  re- 
duced, as  all  the  paraphernalia  of  shafts,  wheels,  wheel-guards,  etc. ,  will 
be  dispensed  with.  We  were  struck  with  the  great  regularity  of  the 
motion,  not  the  slightest  jar  being  percejatible.  The  engines  consist  of 
two  cylinders  sixteen  inches  in  diameter  with  eighteen-inch  stroke,  and 
are  worked  by  steam,  of  a  pressure  varying  from  thirty-five  pounds  to 
fifty-five  pounds  to  the  square  inch,  their  construction  is  extremely  sim- 
ple and  evinces  a  knowledge  of  steam  machinery  by  the  inventor  which 
is  calculated  to  give  additional  confidence  in  the  success  of  his  propeller 
in  all  the  varieties  of  its  application  for  the  canal,  river,  or  ocean  navi- 
gation. 

The  Stockton  was  built  at  Birkenhead,  on  the  Mersey,  by 
Messrs.  John  &  Macgregor  Laird,  who  were  the  pioneers  in 
building  iron  vessels,  one  of  their  boats,  the  Alburha,  having 
been  sent  with  the  Landers  to  Africa  to  explore  the  ISTiger.* 
From  them,  no  doubt,  Ericsson  obtained  thus  early,  ideas  on  the 
subject  of  iron  ship  construction  of  which  he  was  able,  later  in 
life,  to  make  most  effective  use. 

Some  gentleman,  whose  knowledge  of  the  text  of  Shake- 
speare was  obtained  at  second-hand,  objected  to  one  of  his  plays 
on  hearing  it  for  the  first  time,  because  it  was  too  full  of  fa- 
miliar quotations  to  do  credit  to  the  author's  originality.  Erics- 
son was  the  subject  of  similar  criticism  in  his  old  age.  His 
knowledge  of  and  experience  with  njany  mechanical  contriv- 
ances in  common  use  to-day  dated  so  far  back  of  any  existing 
recollection  that  he  was  supposed  to  have  copied  from  others 
what  he,  in  fact,  originated  himself,  or  certainly  first  brought 
into  use.  The  spectacle  of  saucy  little  steam-tugs  drawing 
huge  vessels  after  them  at  will,  so  familiar  now  in  American 
waters,  was  wholly  unknown  to  British  seamen  in  1S38.  So 
strange,  indeed,  that  the  stolid  watermen  watched  the  feats  of 
towing  on  the  Thames  with  the  sort  of  curiosity  attending  a 
balloon  ascension,  as  an  entertaining  exhibition  in  dynamics, 
wholly  disconnected  from  any  relation  to  the  daily  business  ot 
*  Fairbairn's  History  and  Progress  of  Iron  Ship  Building,  p.  4 


96  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

life.  Even  the  commendation  of  the  Thnes  could  not  arouse 
in  conservative  British  ship-owners,  or  naval  oflficers,  the  ambi- 
tion to  avail  themselves  of  this  new  power. 

Just  previous  to  this,  in  the  winter  of  1S37,  Ericsson's  pro- 
peller had  been  fitted  with  great  success  to  a  canal  boat  of  ten 
horse-power  called  the  JToveltf/,  pljing  upon  the  canal  between 
Manchester  and  London,  and  realizing  a  speed  of  eight  or  nine 
miles  an  hour.  "  This,"  sajs  Bourne,  '*  is  the  first  example  of 
a  screw  boat  being  employed  for  commercial  purposes ;  but 
this  boat  was  in  a  short  time  laid  up,  owing  to  the  failure  of 
her  owners.  In  the  early  part  of  1S39  another  u-on  steamer, 
TO  X  7  feet,  with  14-horse-power  engines,  was  built  by  Mr.  J. 
T.  "Woodhouse,  and  fitted  with  Ericsson's  propeller  to  run  on 
the  Ashby-de-la-Zouche  Canal,  near  Leicester,  England.  She 
attained  a  speed  of  nine  to  ten  miles  in  deep  water.  These  ex- 
periments were  not  repeated,  and  it  required  a  struggle  of  j  ears 
to  persuade  the  British  public  and  British  officials  of  the  value 
of  the  screw."  * 

In  his  petition  of  1S50  to  the  Privy  Council  Ericsson  tells 
us  that  the  success  attending  these  several  vessels  was,  at  the 
time,  faithfully  and  favorably  recorded  in  the  Times  news- 
paper, Mechanics  Magazine,  the  Civil  Engineers  and  Archi- 
tects Journal,  and  the  London  Journal  of  Arts  and  Sciences. 

Although  the  importance,  usefulness,  and  practicability  of 
the  invention  were  thus  established,  and  public  attention  at- 
tracted to  it,  '*  yet  so  little  was  it  then  understood  and  such  was 
the  opposition  and  indifference  of  engineers  and  others  inter- 
ested in  the  invention  that  no  benefit  resulted  to  the  inventor." 

Ericsson  further  called  the  attention  of  the  Privy  Council 
to  the  fact  that  his  patent  "  was  the  earliest  in  date,  and  that 
in  a  book  recently  published  by  Bennet  AVoodcroft,  Professor  of 
Machinery  in  the  University  College  of  London,  on  '  The  Ori- 
gin and  Progress  of  Steam  Navigation,'  it  is  admitted  that 
your  petitioner,  John  Ericsson,  accomplished  for  the  screw  pro- 
peller in  America  and  in  England  what  Eulton  did  for  the 
paddle-wheel  in  the  former  country,t  which  testimony  your  pe- 

•  A  Treatise  on  the  Screw  Propeller,  bj  John  Bourne,  p.  8S.  London,  1852. 
■|-  See  Woodcroft's  Sketch  of  the  Origin  and  Progress  of  Steam  Navigation, 
p.  102.     London,  1848. 


THE  SCKEW   PROPELLER.  97 

titioners  submit  is  the  more  valuable  as  proceeding  from  one 
who  is  himself  the  inventor  of  an  improved  propeller,  and  to 
whom  your  petitioners  were  wholly  unknown.  The  efforts  of 
your  petitioners,  and  particularly  your  petitioner,  the  said  John 
Ericsson,  have  mainly  contributed  to  the  introduction  and  prac- 
tical application  of  the  screw  as  a  marine  propeller  to  the  al- 
most incalculable  benefit  of  this  great  commercial  country." 

This  petition  presents  very  fully,  in  formal  language,  a  his- 
tory of  its  author's  claims  to  the  screw  propeller.  Various  na- 
tions have  claimed  it  for  their  citizens,  just  as  they  have  claimed 
the  steam-engine  and  other  useful  inventions.  In  front  of  the 
Polytechnic  School  at  Vienna  stands  a  bronze  monument, 
erected  in  1863,  by  a  national  subscription,  to  the  memory  of  Jo- 
seph Eessel,  the  Austrian  to  whom  his  countrymen  ascribe  the 
first  use  of  the  screw.  Ressel's  first  drawing  %vas  made  in  1812, 
while  he  was  a  student  in  the  University  of  Vienna  ;  his  first 
experiments  were  made  in  1826,  with  a  barge  driven  by  hand, 
and  February  11,  1827,  an  Austrian  patent  was  issued  to  him. 
In  1829  he  applied  his  screw  to  a  boat  with  an  engine  of  six 
horse-power  and  made  for  a  time  six  miles  an  hour.  Then  a 
steam-pipe  burst  and  the  police,  whose  heads  were  more  occu- 
pied in  those  days  with  the  plots  of  Carbonari  than  with  scien- 
tific investigation,  put  an  end  to  further  experiments. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  John  Bourne,  who  devotes  a  treatise 
to  the  screw  propeller  and  describes  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
six  different  inventions,  does  not  so  much  as  mention  the  orio-- 
inal  of  the  Austrian  monument.  In  1823,  Captain  Delisle,  of 
the  French  Engineers,  presented  a  memorial  to  the  Minister 
of  Marine  describing  a  proposed  method  of  propelling  vessels 
by  means  of  a  submerged  screw.  No  attention  was  paid  to  it 
and  it  was  forgotten  until  revived  in  after  years  to  furnish  a 
pretext  for  the  invasion  of  Ericsson's  patent  in  France  where 
his  propeller  was  the  first  introduced  and  obtained  a  wide  accept- 
ance. Weighing  Ericsson  in  the  balance  with  his  chief  rival. 
Smith,  Bourne  says:  "Ericsson,  previous  to  his  connection 
with  the  screw,  was  an  accomplished  engineer  ;  Smith  was  only, 
an  amateur,  with  almost  everything  except  the  leading  idea 
to  learn.  Ericsson's  mechanical  resources  gave  him  means  of 
overcoming  difficulties  such  as  Smith  did  not  possess;  and 
7 


98  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

Smith  had  therefore  to  accept  expedients  then  nsual  among 
engineers  as  his  starting-point,  whereas  Ericsson  could  reject 
those  expedients  in  favor  of  others  which  his  own  ingenuity 
suggested.  Thus,  in  bringing  up  the  speed  of  the  screw,  Smith 
had  to  submit  to  the  use  of  gearing,  because  that  was  the  ex- 
pedient which  was  approved  by  orthodox  engineers ;  but  Erics- 
son threw  the  dogmas  of  engineers  to  the  winds,  and  coupled 
the  engine  immediately  to  the  propeller."* 

In  March,  1S45,  Ericsson  made  affidavit  that  before  the  year 
1833  he  had  devoted  much  time  and  attention  to  the  invention 
of  stern  propellers,  having  been  appointed  by  a  carrying  com- 
pany in  London  to  conduct  numerous  experiments  in  propelling 
canal-boats  with  submerged  propellers  in  the  London  &  Bir- 
mingham Canal.  In  1833  his  attention  was  particularly  di- 
rected to  the  subject  of  oblique  propulsion,  on  the  principle 
for  which  he  afterward  obtained  letters  patent  in  England. 
He  employed  Elias  Harrison,  afterward  Chief  Engineer  on  the 
L^.  S.  S.  Princeton,  to  fit  stern  propellers  of  various  patterns  to 
a  canal  boat  called  the  Francis  and  belonging  to  Messrs.  Robins 
&,  Mills,  forwarders,  128  London  "Wall.  All  of  these  propel- 
lers were  connected  with  the  engine  with  a  cylindrical  iron 
shaft  projecting  through  the  centre  of  the  stern-post  and 
worked  below  the  water-line.  They  were  placed  between  the 
rudder  and  the  stern-post,  and  were  protected  by  an  overhang 
which  also  gave  support  to  the  rudder  from  above  ;  wheel  and 
rudder  being  supported  from  below  by  a  flat  iron  bar  bolted 
to  the  after  end  of  the  keel,  extending  beyond  it  and  turning 
in  the  space  between  this  and  the  overhang.  The  same  device 
was,  toward  the  end  of  183'1,  applied  by  Ericsson  to  a  new  canal 
boat  called  the  Annatarius  built  by  Robins  ifc  Mills,  the  over- 
hang in  this  case  forming  part  of  the  boat  itself.  These  facts 
are  stated  in  an  affidavit  made  by  Harrison,  who  further  states 
that  the  screw  was  thus  put  into  practical  operation  on  the  An- 
iMtarius  "  before  May,  1835,  this  deponent  having  been  em- 
ployed by  the  aforesaid  Robins  A:  Mills  as  chief  engineer  run- 
ning the  said  boat  for  many  months  from  that  time." 

Farmer  Smith's  attention  was  not  directed  to  the  subject  of 
screw  propulsion  until  1835,  but  he  preceded  Ericsson  with  his 
*  Bourne's  Treatise  on  the  Screw  Propeller,  p.  90. 


THE  SCREW   PROPELLER.  99 

English  patent.  It  was  dated  May  31,  1836,  Ericsson's  July 
13,  1836,  or  six  weeks  later.  That  tlie  latter  carried  his  inven- 
tion into  practice  at  once  is  shown  by  his  statement  and  that 
of  Count  Von  Rosen  to  the  Privy  Council,  as  well  as  by  contem- 
porary newspaper  accounts. 

The  Mechanics  Magazine  of  June  3,  1837,  described  the 
towing  of  the  American  packet  ship  Toronto,  of  six  hundred 
and  thirty  tons  burden,  on  June  28,  1837,  and  published  the 
certificates  of  the  pilot  and  mate  that  the  vessel  was  towed 
"  at  the  rate  of  four  and  a  half  knots  an  hour  against  the  tide." 
Two  years  later  the  same  vessel  was  again  towed  by  another 
propeller,  and  this  led  to  some  confusion  of  dates,  upon  which 
has  been  founded  a  denial  of  the  original  performance.  The 
Enterprise,  built  for  the  Ashby-de-la-Zouche  Canal,  ran  there 
for  one  season,  but  without  profit  to  her  owner.  She  was  ac- 
cordingly transferred  to  the  Trent  and  Mersey  where  she  met 
with  great  success  as  a  steam-tug  hauling  coal  barges. 

Among  Captain  Ericsson's  papers  appears  a  letter  from 
Count  Yon  Rosen  enclosing  this  financial  statement.  It  pre- 
sents a  very  interesting  condensed  history  of  his  early  relations 
to  the  propeller. 

ERICSSON'S  PATENT  PROPELLER. 

Dr. 

£ 

1836.       To  cost  of  first  experimental  model 27 

♦'  "  patent 150 

"  Robins  &  Mills'  canal  boats  machinery. , .  1,264 

"  model  No.  2 26 

"  experimental  boat  Ogden 394 

"  canal  boat  Bobiii  No.  1 283 

"  engine  and  propeller  of  tlxe  Bobert  Stock- 
ton      1,529 

"  Robins'  canal  boat 208 

"  Robins'  experiment 115 

"  model  No.  3 44 

*'  Rossiere  rotary  engine  and  propeller 516 

((             ((              <i             «'             «'         80 

' '  engine  and  propeller  Stockton 37 

((  u  "  «'         66 

"  Captain  Ericsson's  maintenance 94 

"  Stockton  machinery 196 

"  No.  3  rotary  engine  and  propeller 404 

"  Rossiere's  rotary  engine  and  propeller. . . .     304 


1837. 

Jan. 

April 

Nov. 

1838. 

Jan. 

1, 

May 

7, 
19, 

Aug. 

24, 

<( 

>( 

(( 

(( 

Dec. 

7, 

<( 

31. 

1839. 

Jan. 

1, 

i( 

19, 

(( 

25, 

s 

d 

14 

10 

0 

0 

17 

2 

12 

6 

16 

11 

13 

8 

2 

6 

10 

7 

8 

1 

0 

9 

11 

2 

5 

2 

12 

3 

13 

8 

3 

0 

11 

3 

17 

8 

16 

10 

100 


LIFE  OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 


1839.  £  $  d 

Feb.    15,  To  cost  of  5<<xrA-ton  macLinery 180  7  0 

May   25,   "            "         "               "           248  19  7 

"      "     "           "  3  models 149  11  5 

June    5,   "  "  engine  and  propeller  for  canal  boat  Ashby- 

de-la-Zouche 562  17  9 

"     25,   •'            "  semi-rotary  engine  and  propeller 802  18  2 

Sept.    2,   "            "  Captain  Ericsson's  maintenance 600  0  9 

Nov.    5,   "            ••  Robins'  canal  boat 27  17  6 

Dec.  31,  "           "  Captain  Ericsson's  maintenance 50  0  0 

1840.  .S/ocWon  machinery 47  0  0 

Jan.           "            "  Robins'  canal  boat 15  13  6 

July,        "           "  Captain  Ericsson's  maintenance 249  12  0 

Dec.  31.  *•           •«         "              "                ♦•             50  0  0 

1841.  "  " 


8,730      6      1 


1837. 


April 
Mav 

5,  B 
16,    "' 

Sept. 
Oct. 

13,    " 
2,    " 

1838. 

Jan. 

25     " 

March  1,    " 

i( 

5,    " 

April 
May 
June 

22,    " 

19,    " 

8,    " 

28,    " 

Aug. 
Oct. 

24,    " 
2,    " 

1839. 

Jan. 

5,    " 

Feb. 

20,    '« 

July 
Aug. 
Dec. 

6,    " 

3,    " 

31.    " 

1840. 

Jan. 

4,    " 

Feb. 

(i 

Aug. 

it 

Cb. 


By  cash  Ogden  and  Stockton  boats 95 

■           « <               « <                                < «                      41  2  l^Q 

old  material  canal  boats 250 

cash  Robins  &  Mills 455 


"     Ogden  &iid  Stockton 350 

"    Robins    130 

"         "      415 

"     Ogden  a.ni  Stockton 400 

"        •'                  "         156 

"     Robins 99 

"    Rossiere 100 

"          "        160 

"     Ogden  a.nd  Stockton 550 

"    Rossiere 180 

' '     Ogden  and  Stockton 442 

"         "                     "       572 

"    Ashby-de-la-ZmicTie 290 

old  material,  Robins 50 

cash  Ogden  and  Stockton 770 

'•     Robins 49 

old  material,  Robins 25 


5,712 
Balance 3,017 


Balance 3,017      6      5 

1846.     Cash  Amphion 1,500      0     0 


Law  expenses. , 


1,517      6 
156      0 


t 

d 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

6 

11 

0 

0 

0 

0 

15 

3 

0 

0 

9 

4 

3 

7 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

11 

0 

12 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

18 

9 

12 

5 

10 

5 

19 
6 


8,730      6      1 


1,673     6     5 


CHAPTER  YII. 

REMOVAL  TO  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Adventurous  Voyage  of  the  Stockton  Across  the  Atlantic. — Subsequent 
History  of  the  Fii'st  Screw  Steamer. — Eecognition  of  Ericsson's 
Claims  to  the  Screw. — Kobert  Fulton's  War-steamer. — Naval  Oppo- 
sition to  the  Use  of  Steam. — Award  of  a  Gold  Medal  for  the  Steam 
Fire-engine. — Early  Use  of  Propeller  in  American  "Waters. — Erics- 
son's Personal  Appearance  and  Habits. — Mrs.  Ericsson  Joins  her 
Husband. 

UNDER  date  of  May  30,  1839,  this  entry  appears  in  the 
published  "  Diary  of  Philip  Hone." 

Among  the  maritime  exploits  with  which  these  adventurous  times 
abound,  the  arrival,  on  Wednesday  last,  of  a  little  steam  schooner,  called 
the  Robei-t  F.  Stockton,  from  England,  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable. 
She  sailed  from  Gravesend  on  April  13.  She  is  only  ten  feet  wide  and 
seventy  feet  long,  and  her  burden  is  thirty  tons.  She  is  built  entirely 
of  wrought  sheet-iron,  and  is  intended  as  a  towing  vessel  on  the  New 
Jersey  Canal.  The  commander  is  Captain  Crane.  She  performed  her 
voyage  in  forty-six  days,  with  no  serious  disaster  except  the  loss  of  one 
seaman,  who  was  washed  off  this  little  cockle-shell  by  one  of  the  seas 
which  were  constantly  sweeping  her  decks.  Never,  I  presume,  was  the 
western  ocean  crossed  in  so  small  a  craft.  There  was  not  room  enough 
to  lie  straight  nor  to  stand  erect.  This  little  vessel  lies  near  the  Battery, 
and  is  visited  by  hundreds  of  curious  persons,  anxious  to  realize  the 
possible  truth  of  the  nursery  story  about  the  "three  men  of  Gotham" 
who  "  went  to  sea  in  a  bowl."  * 

Crane  was  a  captain  in  the  American  merchant  marine  and 
a  most  intrepid  sailor,  as  this  experience  shows.  His  crew  con- 
sisted of  four  men  and  a  boy,  and  he  made  the  passage  under 
sail  alone.  In  admiration  of  his  daring  the  Kew  York  authori- 
ties presented  him  with  the  freedom  of  the  city.    The  little  tug 

*  Diary  of  Philip  Hone,  1828-1851.  Edited  by  Bayard  Tuckerman.  Vol. 
i.,  p.  362. 


102 


LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 


was  set  to  work  on  tlie  Delaware  &  Tiaritan  Canal,  and  nearly 
thirty  years  after  was  still  doing  duty  as  the  Neio  Jersey.  On 
November  17,  1S6G,  Bennet  Woodcroft,  then  Librarian  of  the 
British  Patent  Office,  wrote  to  Ericsson  expressing  a  desire  to 
purchase  the  original  engines  of  this  vessel,  to  place  them  in  the 
Patent  Office  Museum — "  not  only  for  their  historical  value,  but 
also  to  put  an  end  to  F.  P.  Smith's  false  claim  to  any  invention 
in  reerard  to  screw  boats  or  their  first  introduction."  Ericsson 
replied :  "  The  Bohert  F.  Stockton  {JVew  Jersey)  is  still  in  oper- 
ation   as   a  tow-boat  after  twenty-five  years'  constant  service. 


The  Stockton  crossing  the  Atlantic. 

The  original  engine  was  some  time  ago  taken  out.  It  will  give 
me  great  pleasure  to  send  it  to  you  free  of  cost,  if  not  broken 
up." 

The  Stockton,  or  JVezo  Jersey,  was  at  this  time  in  the  pos- 
session of  the  Messrs.  Stevens,  of  Iloboken.  Ericsson  offered 
to  replace  the  old  engine  Avith  a  new  one,  but  without  avail,  and 
on  August  15,  1S73,  ho  wrote:  "Nothing  could  induce  the 
Messrs.  Stevens,  M-ho  claim  to  be  the  originators  of  screw  pro- 
pulsion, to  permit  the  machinery  of  the  7'eal  pioneer  screw  ves- 
sel to  be  placed  in  your  museum.    Accordingly,  some  time  ago, 


EEMOVAL   TO   THE   UNITED   STATES.  103 

the  Robert  F.  StocJcton  was  hauled  out  of  the  water  and  cut  up, 
each  plate  being  separated  from  the  others,  while  the  machin- 
ery was  broken  up  and  put  into  the  melting-pot.  So  careful 
were  the  parties  mentioned  to  prevent  the  smallest  part  to  re- 
main as  a  proof  that  the  remarkable  vessel  once  existed,  that 
'  not  a  vestige  now  remains,'  says  my  informant,  who  has  access 
to  the  premises  where  the  vile  act  of  destruction  took  place.  A 
meaner  proceeding  cannot  well  be  imagined,  but  I  expected 
nothing  else,  since  it  leaked  out  during  the  negotiation  what 
the  old  machinery  was  wanted  for." 

This  letter  was  in  response  to  one  from  Mr.  Woodcroft  of  a 
month  earlier,  saying :  "  The  benefit  you  have  conferred  on  the 
world  by  the  screw  propeller  is  beyond  computation.  If  I  could 
obtain  the  original  engines,  in  Avhatever  state  they  now  are,  I 
should  be  proud  of  them  as  a  trophy,  to  be  placed  in  the  Patent 
Office  Museum  in  London,  where  they  would  be  side  by  side 
with  Miller's  experimental  engine  that  drove  a  paddle-wheel 
boat  in  1788 ;  Watt's  steam-engine,  by  which  circular  motion 
was  first  given  to  a  shaft ;  Bell's  engine  that  drove  the  first 
practical  paddle-wheel  steam-boat  in  Europe  in  1812,  on  the 
Clyde;  Stephenson's  locomotive,  i\\e- BocJcet,  and  your  locomo- 
tive, the  Novelty.  If  you  could  possibly  point  out  the  way  in 
which  I  could  obtain  them,  I  would  spare  neither  expense  nor 
trouble."  This  is  what  was  thought  at  the  British  Patent  Office 
of  Ericsson's  claim  to  the  screw  propeller,  after  a  generation  of 
trial,  investigation,  and  controversy-. 

"  IN'ot  only  did  Captain  Stockton  order  on  his  own  account 
the  two  iron  boats,"  says  Mr.  Sargent,  "  he  at  once  brought  the 
subject  before  the  Government  of  the  United  States  and  caused 
numerous  plans  and  models  to  be  made  at  his  own  expense,  ex- 
plaining the  peculiar  fitness  of  the  new  invention  for  ships  of 
war.  So  completely  persuaded  was  he  of  its  great  importance 
in  this  aspect,  and  so  determined  that  his  views  should  be  car- 
ried out,  that  he  boldly  assured  the  inventor  that  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  would  test  the  propeller  on  a  large 
scale  ;  and  so  confident  was  Ericsson  that  the  perseverance  and 
energy  of  Captain  Stockton  would  sooner  or  later  accomplish 
what  he  promised,  that  he  at  once  abandoned  his  professional 
engagements  in  England  and  set  out  for  the  United  States." 


104  LIFK   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

Speaking  of  the  screw  propeller,  Mr.  Sargent  says  further  : 
"The  circumstances  under  which  this  in\'ention  was  devised 
and  prosecuted,  the  perseverance  with  which  it  was  followed  up 
bj  Ericsson,  through  all  discouragement  and  neglect,  and  its 
ultimate  success  in  its  precise  original  shape  prove  it  to  have 
been  the  result,  not  of  a  happy  accident,  but  of  patient  reflection 
and  scientific  calculation.  It  was  not  hit  upon,  but  was  wrought 
out;  it  was  not  suggested,  but  elaborated;  demonstrated  in 
theory  to  the  inventor's  own  satisfaction  before  it  was  submit- 
ted to  the  test  of  successful  experiment.''  * 

Ericsson  was  at  this  time  superintending  engineer  of  the 
Eastern  Counties  Railway,  one  of  the  principal  lines  centring  in 
the  British  metropolis,  designed  by  Mr.  Braithwaite  and  opened 
in  1S39.  For  this  road  Ericsson  built  a  machine  of  his  own 
contrivance  for  constructing  embankments.  He  resigned  his 
position  and  started  for  Xew  York  Xovember  1,  1S39,  in  the 
steamer  Great  Western,  the  pioneer  of  the  first  line  of  Atlantic 
steamers. 

The  Great  Wester?i  had  a  stormy  passage  and  did  not  ar- 
rive in  Xew  York  until  November  23d,  so  Ericsson  had  an 
opportunity  of  realizing  the  difference  between  planning  ships 
on  shore  and  sailing  in  them  on  the  sea,  for  he  was  dreadfully 
sea-sick.  "  Before  May  20,  1S20,''  he  says,  in  a  letter  written 
in  1875,  "  I  hailed  from  Sweden,  after  that  date  up  to  Novem- 
ber 1,  1839,  I  hailed  from  England,  and  since  November  23d, 
same  year,  I  have  been  a  steady  New  Yorker." 

It  does  not  appear  to  have  been  Ericsson's  original  inten- 
tion to  become  a  resident  of  the  United  States,  for  I  find  among 
his  letters  the  following  from  his  friend  Ogden,  to  whose 
friendly  suggestions  his  journey  to  the  New  "World  was  in  no 
small  measure  due : 

Oak  Dale,  Tlmrsdaj  Night. 
Mt  Deab  Ekicsson  :  I  have  just  got  through  with  a  lot  of  letters  for 
you  to  take  with  you  to  the  United  States,  but  I  have  determined  to  put 
them  into  your  hands  myself,  and  to  bid  you  good-by  in  person.  I  am 
going  up  to  town  on  Saturday  night,  and  on  Sunday  morning  shall  go 
directly  to  Swartwout,  wherever  he  may  be — if  you  have  not  yet 
learned,  inquire  either  of  Miller,  in  Henrietta  Street,  or  of  Blood,  12 

*  Sargent's  Lecture  on  Improvements  in  Steam  Navigation. 


REMOVAL   TO   THE   UNITED   STATES.  105 

North  Audley  Street,  but  at  all  events  hold  yourself  ready  to  dine  with 
us  on  Sunday,  somewhere,  where  you  will  get  much  information  on  the 
subject  of  your  transatlantic  tour. 

Eemember  me  kindly  to  Madam  and  believe  me, 

Yours  truly, 

Francis  B.  Ogden. 

At  the  time  of  Ericsson's  transfer  to  the  United  States 
there  were  no  steam  vessels  in  our  navy.  In  1813-14  E.obert 
Fulton  had  built  his  Demologos  or  Fulton.  This  was  the  first 
war-steamer  ever  built,  and  into  her  Fulton  introduced  a  va- 
riety of  devilish  contrivances  for  confounding  an  enemy  ;  fur- 
naces for  red-hot  shot,  submarine  guns  sending  one  hundred 
pound  balls  twelve  feet  below  the  water-line,  and  an  engine 
for  discharging  an  immense  column  of  water  upon  decks  and 
through  portholes.  The  Fulton  was  never  entirely  completed, 
the  war  with  England  which  had  called  for  her  construction 
having  ended.  She  was  converted  into  a  receiving  ship  and 
stationed  at  the  Brooklyn  Navy  Yard.  There  she  was  blown 
up  in  1829,  whether  by  accident  or  design  has  never  been  set- 
tled, and  a  large  number  of  persons  on  board  of  her  were 
killed. 

In  1837-38  a  second  Fulton  was  built.  Though  this  vessel 
attained  a  high  speed,  she  was  entirely  unsuited  to  naval  pur- 
poses, and  in  1839  was  lying  a  useless  hulk  at  the  Brooklyn 
Navy  Yard.  Stockton  was  an  ardent  advocate  for  the  introduc- 
tion of  steam  into  the  naval  vessels  already  in  service,  and  his 
conferences  with  Ericsson  had  satisfied  him  that  it  was  possible 
with  a  vessel  on  an  entirely  new  plan  to  convince  the  most  con- 
servative of  the  value  of  steam.  By  act  of  March  3, 1839,  Con- 
gress had  authorized  the  construction  of  three  ships  of  war,  and 
it  was  Stockton's  confident  assurance  that  he  would  be  allowed 
to  build  one  of  these  that  prompted  Ericsson  to  prepare  the 
plans  of  a  steam  frigate  in  England  and  bring  them  with  him 
to  this  country.  Every  detail  for  such  a  vessel  had  been  most 
thoroughly  considered,  and  the  plans  included  not  only  the 
model  of  the  vessel  but  her  engines  and  motive  power,  her 
guns,  and  the  method  of  mounting,  aiming,  and  firing  them. 

Unexpected  difiiculties  attended  the  carrying  out  of  the  proj- 
ect  Stockton  and  Ericsson  had  conceived  between  them.     A 


106  LIFE   OF   JOHN   KRICSSON. 

powerful  service  sentiment  resisted  innovation  of  every  sort,  as 
it  always  has  done  and  always  wiU  do.  "  Do  you  not  know," 
Ericsson  once  %yrote,  "that  you  can  never  convince  a  sailor?  " 
"  The  head  of  the  Navy  Department,"  so  says  Stockton's  bi- 
ographer, "  is  generally  a  politician  more  solicitous  to  obtain 
popularity  among  the  officers  than  competent  to  discharge  judi- 
ciously the  functions  of  his  office.  He  listens,  therefore,  to  the 
voice  of  the  superannuated  officers,  who,  with  professional  dog- 
matism, denounce  all  novelties,  and  pronounce  all  innovations 
dangerous.  The  application  of  steam  to  national  ships-of-war 
from  the  first  was  resisted  by  many  naval  officers,  and  had  to 
encounter  the  most  stubborn  prejudices  and  most  determined 
opposition.  It  was  confidently  asserted  by  the  old  captains 
that  steam  vessels  would  be  worthless  except  for  purposes  of 
transportation."  * 

An  officer  of  the  navy.  Captain  "William  M.  Hunter,  sub- 
mitted a  plan  for  a  vessel  with  submerged  wheels  on  the  sides 
and  Stockton  urged  the  building  of  a  steam  frigate  after  the 
designs  of  Ericsson.  It  was  finally  decided  to  build  one  vessel 
on  each  plan.  There  was  delay  in  carrying  out  the  purpose  of 
the  Xavy  Department,  and  work  was  not  begun  until  1S42, 
upon  the  vessel  proposed  by  Stockton  and  called  the  Princeton, 
after  the  city  of  his  residence. 

Meanwhile  Ericsson  found  abundant  occupation.  Just 
after  his  arrival  here  the  Mechanics'  Institute  of  Xew  York, 
taking  alarm  at  the  destructive  fires  devastating  the  city,  in 
January,  1S40,  offered  its  great  gold  medal  as  a  prize  for  the 
best  plan  of  a  steam  fire-engine.  "With  his  previous  experience, 
Ericsson  had  no  difficulty  in  securing  this  prize.  In  this  en- 
gine he  adhered  to  his  early  system  of  using  a  blowing  appa- 
ratus to  generate  steam,  in  deference  to  the  prevailing  opinion 
that  the  sparks  from  an  engine  using  the  •'  steam-blast  "  would 
endanger  the  wooden  houses  so  common  at  that  day.  The 
engine  used  in  1S29,  at  the  Argyle  fire,  had  six  horse-power 
and  threw  one  hundred  and  fifty  gallons  of  water  in  a  minute 
to  the  height  of  one  hundred  feet.  It  took  twenty  minutes  to 
get  up  steam.  The  new  engine  got  up  steam  in  ten  minutes, 
had  the  power  of  one  hundred  and  eight  men,  and  threw  three 
*  Life  of  Commodore  Robert  F.  Stockton.     New  York,  1856. 


REMOVAL   TO   THE  UNITED   STATES. 


107 


thousand  gallons  of  water  in  a  minute  through  a  1^-inch  pipe  to 
a  height  of  one  hundred  and  five  feet.  It  weighed  two  and 
one-half  tons. 

The  main  purpose  of  Ericsson's  visit  to  the  United  States 
was  to  introduce  his  propeller  to  American  waters.  In  a  letter 
to  his  friend  Sargent,  dated  January  2-i,  1S45,  he  says :  "  I 
visited  this  country  at  Mr.  Ogden's  most  earnest  solicitation,  to 
introduce  my  propeller  on  the  canals  and  inland  waters  of  the 
Union.  I  had  at  the  same  time  strong  reasons  for  supposing 
that  Stockton  would  be  able  to  start  the  '  big  frigate '  for  which 


Steam  Fire   Engine  awarded  a  Prize  by  the  American  Institute,  1840. 

1  had  prepared  such  laborious  plans  in  England.  On  arriving 
here  I  soon  found  that  Captain  S.  had  not  that  power  with 
the  administration  he  had  told  me  in  England — where  he  once 
assured  me  he  could  get  my  propeller  introduced  in  the  Am- 
erican navy  at  once.  He,  on  one  occasion,  expressed  himself 
thus  :  '  I  will  let  you  have,'  or  '  you  shall  have  '  the  '  finest  fri* 
gate  in  the  American  navy  ' — meaning  to  try  the  propeller  on. 

"  Stockton's  inability  to  do  anything  with  the  navy  induced 
me  at  once  to  turn  round  and  see  what  could  be  effected  with 
private  individuals.     The  result  was  the  fitting  out  of  the  Clar- 


108  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

ion,  the  Yandalia,  on  the  lakes,  the  steamboats  Propeller,  Erics- 
son,  and  a  barge  for  the  Canadian  Government,  all  running  on 
the  St.  Lawrence.  Various  other  vessels  were  in  contemplation, 
when  at  last  Captain  Stockton  ordered  his  four  iron  boats,  for 
which  he  never  paid  me  one  cent.  The  steamboat  Ericsson,  on 
the  Delaware,  and  numerous  other  propeller  vessels  were  succes- 
sively commenced,  all  without  the  least  assistance  from  Captain 
Stockton,  who  all  the  while  threw  cold  water  on  mj  endeavors," 

In  a  letter  to  Captain  Stockton,  dated  "  Astor  Ilouse,  New 
York,  August  31, 1840,*'  Ericsson  called  attention  to  the  fact  that 
his  ''journey  to  this  country"  was  undertaken  "for  the  sole  pur- 
pose of  carrying  out  patents  in  which  yourself  and  Mr.  Ogden 
are  equally  interested  with  myself."  lie  stated  that  Mr.  Ogden 
had  agreed  to  loan  him  £150,  and  asked  for  a  similar  loan  from 
Stockton,  adding,  "Your  refusal  would  be  unwelcome  news,  I 
can  assure  you."  His  gun-lock  was  at  that  time  being  tried  at 
Sandy  Hook,  and  he  had  great  hopes  of  profit  from  that.  He 
says,  in  concluding  his  letter,  "  Mr.  Ogden  tells  me  you  are 
about  starting  an  ocean  steamer  at  Philadelphia — I  will  not  ex- 
press my  apprehensions  that  the  news  are  too  good  to  be  true." 

The  canal  barges  for  Stockton  were  vessels  of  six  feet 
draught  and  two  hundred  tons  burden,  100  x  22^  feet.  They 
were  built  early  in  1S42  and  ran  from  Philadelphia,  two  of  them 
to  Albany  and  two  to  Hartford.  They  were  ordered  through 
Ericsson  from  a  Kew  York  builder  named  Cunningham,  and 
were  the  occasion  of  some  unpleasantness  growing  out  of  cir- 
cumstances the  significance  of  which  is  not  now  apparent.  In  a 
letter  dated  Xovember  1,  1S42,  Stockton  says:  ''There  seems 
to  be  no  end  to  the  misunderstanding  between  ns."  In  this 
letter  he  also  says :  "  What  I  have  done  for  you,  the  trouble, 
pain,  anxiety,  suspense,  and  inconvenience  M-hich  I  have  under- 
gone in  my  desire  to  serve  you — not  myself,  seem  to  be  alto- 
gether overlooked  by  you,  and  you  seem  to  accuse  me  of  hav- 
ing made  use  of  your  services  for  my  own  ends  and  afterward 
to  refuse  you  what  you  thought  was  your  just  due.  I  was 
not  disposed  to  submit  to  this  in  silence  and  was  desirous  to 
know  whether  you  intended  to  make  any  charge  for  any  other 
services  you  have  rendered,  because  I  did  not  wish  unexpected- 
ly to  be  reminded  of  them." 


REMOVAL   TO   THE   UNITED   STATES.  109 

This  seems  to  have  been  simply  a  phase  of  the  old  quarrel 
between  client  and  patron.  "  I  hope,"  said  Dr.  Johnson,  in  his 
famous  letter  to  Lord  Chesterfield,  "  it  is  no  very  cynical  as- 
perity, not  to  confess  obligation  where  no  benefit  has  been  re- 
ceived, or  to  be  unwilling  that  the  public  should  consider  me  as 
owing  that  to  a  patron  which  Providence  has  enabled  me  to 
do  for  myself."  Stockton's  confident  assurances  had  thus  far 
resulted  in  nothing  tangible,  and  whatever  assistance  he  might 
receive,  the  proud-spirited  engineer  believed  to  be  due  from  a 
public  servant  to  one  who  was  himself  seeking  public  ends. 
He  felt  that  he  was  superior  to  Stockton  in  every  respect,  ex- 
cept the  possession  of  wealth  and  influence,  and  he  was  by  no 
means  disposed  to  accept  the  position,  in  which  it  was  sought 
to  place  him,  of  an  "  ingenious  mechanic  "  developing  the  ideas 
of  a  progressive  naval  officer. 

The  increase  of  intelligence  has  in  some  measure  relieved 
the  men  of  brains  from  their  position  of  slavisli  dependence 
upon  men  of  position,  but  their  emancipation  is  not  yet  complete, 
as  Ericsson  discovered.  He  struggled  through  life  to  assert  the 
dignity  of  his  profession,  and  we  shall  see  how  constantly  his 
uncompromising  spirit  kept  him  at  war  with  circumstances. 
From  his  cradle  almost  he  had  had  the  command  of  men  ;  the 
sense  of  strength  which  superiority  in  any  department  gives 
was  active  within  him,  and  in  his  field  he  was  inclined  to  be  as 
autocratic  as  one  who  controls  the  resources  of  an  empire. 

Among  those  who  witnessed  the  early  trials  of  Ericsson's 
propeller  in  England  were  two  American  ship  captains  and  ship 
owners,  Messrs.  Eussell  E.  &  Stephen  E.  Glover,  of  New  York. 
The  Glovers  were  enterprising  men  and  they  determined,  with- 
out waiting  for  others,  to  apply  the  screw  to  the  Clarion,  a  ves- 
sel they  were  building  to  run  between  I^ew  York  and  Havana. 
This  was  the  fourth  vessel  to  receive  the  Ericsson  propeller ;  the 
Ogden  being  the  first,  the  Stockton  the  second,  and  the  Van- 
dalia,  plying  between  Oswego  and  Chicago,  the  third.  Four 
vessels  were  put  on  the  Rideau  Canal  and  St.  Lawrence,  viz., 
the  Baron  Toronto,  Royal  Barge,  Projpeller,  and  Ericsson ; 
seven  sailed  from  Philadelphia  to  various  ports ;  one  was  on 
the  Erie  Canal  ;  four  on  Lake  Erie  ;  two,  besides  the  Vandalia, 
ran  from  Oswego  to  Chicago ;  two  from  New  York  to  Canada ; 


110  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

one  was  put  on  the  James  River  Canal  and  one  on  the  Delawara 
This  makes  in  all  tweutj-four  merchant  vessels  receiving  the 
Ericsson  propeller  before  the  Princeton  went  into  commission, 
February,  1849.  There  was  besides  the  Revenue  Cutter  Jef- 
ferson on  Lake  Erie. 

Great  interest  in  this  new  motor  was  awakened  by  the  dis- 
cussions in  the  ISTew  York  papers  at  the  time  the  Clarion  was 
built  in  IS-iO,  and  its  obvious  adaptability  to  the  necessities  of 
American  shipping  was  soon  made  apparent.  From  a  list  pre- 
pared in  1843  by  Lieutenant  Johnson,  a  Swedish  naval  officer, 
acting  under  the  instructions  of  his  Government,  it  appears 
that  the  propellers  at  that  time  numbered  in  all  forty-two ;  one 
built  in  1839,  six  in  1841,  nine  in  1842,  and  twenty-six  in  1843. 
The  history  of  the  introduction  of  steam  navigation  on  United 
States  waters  shows  that  several  years  before  screw  propulsion 
had  assumed  importance  in  England  the  carrying  trade  of  our 
irreat  lakes  was  to  a  larsre  extent  conducted  bv  screw  vessels. 
On  April  6,  1S41,  Captain  James  Van  Cleave  and  Mr.  Ben- 
jamin Isaacs  purchased  the  right  to  use  the  Ericsson  propeller 
on  the  lakes.  The  Vandalia  was  their  first  vessel,  and  on  De- 
cember 1,  1841,  her  owners  reported  that  she  had  proved  a 
great  success.     "  She  has  astonished  us  all,"  they  said. 

At  a  still  earlier  date  the  canal  barge  Ericsson,  buUt  from 
the  plans  of  her  namesake,  made  her  first  voyage  from  Rock- 
ville  to  Montreal,  forty  miles  in  sLxteen  hours — no  great  speed, 
the  siijnificance  of  the  vovafre  beino:  in  the  abilitv  shown  to 
master  the  rapids.  Another  propeller  Ericsson,  built  in  1842, 
to  run  on  the  Delaware  <fe  Chesapeake  Canal,  between  Phila- 
delphia and  Baltimore,  carrying  passengers  and  freight,  proved 
so  great  a  success  commercially  that  two  other  vessels,  the  Cinn- 
berla?id  and  the  Baltimore,  were  ordered  and  the  "  Ericsson 
Line  "  established,  greatly  to  the  discomfort  of  the  Philadelphia, 
Wilmington  6c  Baltimore  Railroad,  with  whose  business  it  most 
seriously  inteifered.  The  railroad  was  compelled  to  reduce  its 
fares  one-half.  It  finally  persuaded  the  State  of  Delaware  to 
impose  a  prohibitory  toll  on  passengers  going  on  the  propeller 
line,  but  this  did  not  restore  its  freight  business.  The  Erics- 
son line  of  steamers  was  incorporated  by  the  State  of  Mary- 
land in  1844,  and  it  is  still  in  operation  with  five  propellers, 


REMOVAL   TO   THE   UNITED   STATES. 


Ill 


Out  of  it  has  grown  the  New  York  &  Baltimore  Transporta- 
tion Company,  equipped  with  eight  steamers  and  plying  daily 
between  Baltimore  &  New  York. 

When  he  first  came  to  New  York  Captain  Ericsson  took  up 
his  residence  at  the  Astor  house,  in  those  days  a  famous  hos- 


The  Vandalia — Pioneer  Propeller  on  the  Lakes. 

telry,  especially  affected  by  New  Englanders,  Daniel  Webster 
making  his  home  there  when  in  the  city  and  the  New  England 
Society  there  doing  yearly  liomage  to  Plymouth  Rock.  Among 
the  New  England  habitues  of  the  place  was  Mr.  John  O.  Sar- 
gent, a  lawyer  of  Massachusetts  birth,  who  to  his  legal  learning 
united  fine  abilities  as  a  writer  and  much  experience  as  an  ed- 


112  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

itor.  He  had  founded  the  Collegian  when  a  student  at  Har- 
vard in  1830,  had  for  four  years,  1834—37,  contributed  the  po- 
litical articles  to  the  Boston  Atlas,  and  was  at  this  time  asso- 
ciated with  James  Watson  Webb  in  the  conduct  of  the  Kew 
York  Courier  and  Enquirer.  The  Kew  Englander  and  the 
Swede  had  a  common  fondness  for  a  good  glass  of  sherry,  and 
were  accustomed  to  linger  over  their  wine  after  the  "  fifteen 
minutes  for  refreshments "  Americans  had  left  the  dining- 
room.  Thus  they  fell  into  conversation,  conversation  led  to  ac- 
quaintance, and  acquaintance  ripened  into  a  friendship  lasting 
to  the  end  of  Ericsson's  life,  Mr.  Sargent,  who  was  eight  years 
his  junior,  surviving  him. 

Immediately  after  his  arrival  in  Xew  York,  Ericsson  estab- 
lished business  relations  with  the  "  Phoenix  Foundry,"  which 
about  this  time  passed  under  the  control  of  two  young  men, 
Messrs.  Hogg  and  De  Lamater.  With  the  junior  partner,  Mr. 
Cornelius  H.  De  Lamater,  his  relations  became  very  intimate, 
and  their  associations  of  business  and  friendship  continued 
through  life. 

Another  of  Ericsson's  early  acquaintances  in  !N^ew  York  was 
Mr.  Samuel  Risley,  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  a  description 
of  his  appearance,  his  characteristics,  and  his  personal  habits  at 
this  time.     Mr.  Risley  says : 

My  first  acquaintance  with  Captain  Ericsson,  or  rather  my  first  sight 
of  him,  I  think,  occurred  in  the  summer  of  1839.*  He  had  brought  with 
him  from  England  a  working  model  of  the  propeller  engine  he  had  de- 
signed for  the  war  steamer  Princeton,  and  a  twelve-inch  wrought-iron 
gun.  The  model  engine  referred  to  was  erected  in  the  Phcenix  Foun- 
dry engine  works.  West  Street,  New  York,  and  put  in  operation  there. 
Captain  Ericsson  would  frequently  visit  the  works,  bringing  with  him 
friends  and  Government  naval  officers  to  witness  its  working.  Of  these 
I  think  Mr.  Ogden  was  one.  Captain  Stockton,  of  the  United  States 
Navy,  the  promoter  of  the  building  of  the  Princeton,  another. 

Captain  Ericsson  all  his  life  was  careful  of  his  personal  appearance  ; 
at  the  time  I  refer  to  he  was  exceptional  in  dress,  not  dandified,  but 
more  in  keeping  with  the  present  morning  call  attire  than  an  ordinary 
day  habit.  A  close-fitting  black  frock  surtout  coat,  well  open  at  the 
front,  with  roUing  collar,  showing  velvet  vest  and  a  good  display  of 

*  Tliis  must  have  been  in  1840,  as  Ericsson  did  not  arrive  until  the  last  of 
November,  1839. 


REMOVAL   TO   THE   UNITED   STATES.  113 

shirt  front,  a  fine  gold  chain  hung  round  the  neck,  looped  at  the  first 
button-hole  of  the  vest  and  attached  to  a  watch  carried  in  the  fob  of 
the  vest.  Usually  light-colored,  well-fitting  trousers,  light-colored  kid 
gloves,  and  a  beaver  hat  completed  the  dress.  To  this  add  a  well-built 
niilitaiy  figure,  about  five  feet  ten  and  one-half  inches  in  height  and  well 
set  up,  with  broad  shoulders  and  rather  large  hands  and  feet ;  the  head 
well  i^laced  and  supported  by  a  military  stock  round  the  neck.  Expres- 
sive features,  blue  eyes,  and  brown,  cui-ly  hair,  fair  complexion.  His 
head  was  about  medium  size,*  his  mouth  well  cut,  upper  lip  a  little 
drawn  ;  the  jaw  large  and  firm-set,  conveying  an  expression  of  firmness 
and  indi^-idual  character. 

Up  to  the  summer  of  1842  I  was  in  constant  attendance  upon  the 
Captain,  being  a  sort  of  factotum  to  him  in  preparing  his  models.  At 
that  time  he  boarded  at  the  Astor  House  where  I  first  met  his  wife.  He 
was  very  reserved  about  his  models  and  inventions  and  seemed  to  have 
a  mortal  dread  of  their  being  discovered.  I  remember  once,  at  a  later 
period  than  I  am  now  referring  to,  we  shook  hands  and  I  pledged  my- 
self most  solemnly  not  to  reveal  a  discovery  of  his  that  at  the  time  he 
considered  of  vital  importance  to  the  caloric  engine,  but  which  on  trial 
was  disappointing  to  him.  It,  however,  led  up  to  uses  by  which  he 
profited  eventually. 

Ericsson's  manner  with  strangers  was  courteous  and  extremely  tak- 
ing. He  invariably  made  friends  of  high  and  low  alike.  With  those  in 
immediate  contact  in  cariying  out  his  work  he  was  very  popular.  He 
had  few  intimates  of  his  own  social  level.  Mr.  John  Osborne  Sargent, 
brother  of  Epes  Sargent,  was  one  of  them.  With  such  I  think  he  would 
be  very  hearty,  open,  and  frank,  and  he  was  a  good  talker. 

In  the  fall  of  1842  the  Captain  employed  me  to  superintend  the 
building  of  an  iron  screw  steamer  at  Richmond,  Va.,  for  the  navigation 
of  the  James  River  and  Kanawha  Canal,  in  that  State.  Owing  to  the 
shallow  water  in  the  canal,  the  Governor  McDoicell,  as  the  vessel  was 
christened,  was  jjut  to  other  use,  although  the  result  of  the  experiment 
was  in  the  main  satisfactory.  She  was  followed  by  another  steamer  pro- 
pelled by  paddles,  but  again  the  difficulty  of  running  the  boat  through 
about  three  feet  of  water  was  insurmountable.  The  Captain  was  at  the 
trial  of  the  McDowell  and  was  introduced  to  the  Governor,  after  M'hom 
the  boat  was  named.  Being  present  at  the  intersTiew,  I  had  an  oppor- 
tunity of  seeing  both  men  at  their  best,  the  Governor  gracious  and  affa- 
ble and  withal  dignified,  Ericsson  lifting  his  hat  and  holding  it  above 
his  head  while  bowing  respectfully,  then  replacing  it  and  shaking  the 
hand  held  out  to  him  by  the  Governor. 

The  following  year  I  went  with  the  Captain  to  95  Franklin  Street 
as  his  assistant,  and  remained  with  him  until  the  fall  of  1840,  when  I  left 
him  to  go  to  China.     Dui'ing  the  period  I  was  with  him  he  accomplished 

*  Twentv-three  inches  in  circumference.  He  was  about  five  feet  seven 
and  one-half  inches  tall. 


114  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

an  immense  amount  of  work.  He  would  work  out  designs  in  pencil  and 
I  would  make  fresh  diawings  from  them  in  detail.  He  gave  up  this 
practice,  he  informed  me,  after  I  left  him  and  gave  particular  attention 
to  all  details,  working  out  every  screw  in  finished  drawings.  He  said 
he  profited  by  it  in  the  end. 

Ericsson's  habit  of  life  at  that  time  was  to  breakfast  at  8.30  a.m. 
dine  at  -i  p.m.,  with  a  cup  of  tea  and  toast  at  7  p.m.  He  usually  went  to 
the  engine  works  to  see  how  his  work  was  progressing  in  the  forenoon, 
but  as  a  rale  he  spent  about  fourteen  hours  a  day  at  his  drawing-board. 

In  designing  he  was  marvellously  quick,  and  with  his  scale  and  a 
pencil  he  would  sketch  almost  equal  to  a  finished  di-awing.  He  had 
been  thoroughly  grounded  in  Euclid  and  his  conceptions  of  mechanical 
movements  were  clear  and  distinct.  He  had  great  method  and  order  in 
laying  out  his  work  and  its  continuance  after  was  easy  to  him — more,  in 
fact,  a  pleasure  than  a  labor.  His  mechanical  resources  in  designing 
were  practically  unlimited.  The  engines  in  the  caloric  ship  Ericsson 
were  a  remarkable  evidence  of  his  superiority  in  this  respect.  In  some 
respects  his  wonderful  inventive  faculty  may  have  acted  as  a  drawback 
to  the  successful  working  out  of  his  plans.  Had  he,  for  instance,  given 
more  time  to  the  improvement  of  the  steam-engine  in  his  earlier  days  it 
is  not  improbable  that  he  would  have  outstripped  all  competitors  in  its 
development. 

During  this  time  he  designed  the  iron  steamer  Iro7i  Witch  as  a  pas- 
senger day  boat  between  New  York  and  Albany.  In  this  he  introduced 
the  compound  jjrinciple  in  the  engine,  using  the  steam  expansively  in  a 
second  cylinder.  The  boat  attained  a  speed  of  about  seventeen  miles  an 
hour,  as  well  as  I  remember,  but  was  not  fast  enough  to  outrun  the  old 
line  boats,  and  she  was  withdrawn  from  the  route. 

About  1845  I  made  drawings  from  a  sketch  by  Cajjtaiu  Ericsson  for 
a  further  improvement  in  the  compound  principle  in  the  steam-engine. 
I  think  a  model  was  also  made  and  a  patent  applied  for. 

I  have  remarked  that  Captain  Ericsson  was,  at  this  period  of  his  life, 
exceptionally  handsome  in  personal  appearance,  and  that  he  was  equally 
attractive  in  dress  and  bearing.  To  me,  from  my  first  intercoiu-se  with 
him  to  the  last,  he  was  always  gentle,  kind,  and  considerate.  In  habit 
of  life  he  was  frugal,  but  in  carrying  out  his  mechanical  conceptions,  or 
in  the  elaboration  of  them,  money  was  not  considered. 

I  last  saw  Captain  Ericsson  on  July  1,  18S7,  at  his  home,  Beach 
Street,  New  York.  Being  on  my  way  to  England,  I  called  to  say  good- 
by ;  we  had  not  met  for  several  years.  He  was  very  cordial,  going 
over  his  daily  habits  of  life,  his  work,  the  improvement  of  the  steam- 
engine,  the  sun  motor,  and  the  lunar  investigations.  He  was  in  good 
health  and  spirits,  and  laughingly  told  me  that  he  was  going  down  by 
gravitation  only  at  the  rate  of  about  three-foiirths  inch  in  seven  years. 
Twice,  on  taking  my  leave,  he  shook  hands,  and  bid  God  bless  me,  re- 
peatedly saying  good-by.     My  last  letter  from  him  is  dated  November 


[  Mrs.    John   Ericsson.] 


EEMOVAL  TO  THE    UNITED   STATES.  115 

9,  1888.  In  it,  in  reference  to  liis  healtli,  lie  writes  :  "I  very  seldom 
quit  my  drawing-table  before  11.00  p.m.,  and  not  once  in  the  course  of 
the  year  go  to  bed  before  half  an  hour  past  midnight.  Brain,  muscle, 
and  eyes,  thank  God,  all  hold  good." 

Mrs.  Ericsson  did  not  accompany  her  husband  to  the  United 
States,  but  soon  followed  him.  Crossing  the  ocean  in  the  mid- 
dle of  winter,  in  one  of  the  uncomfortable  boats  of  that  time, 
she  had  a  trying  passage,  arriving  in  a  state  of  complete  ex- 
haustion. She  remained  with  Captain  Ericsson  for  a  time  at 
the  Astor  House,  and  until  they  transferred  their  residence  to 
!N"o.  95  Franklin  Street,  where  he  had  his  office  as  well  as  his 
home.  This  was  a  fine  house  in  that  day,  and  stories  of  John's 
extravagant  living  went  back  to  Sweden,  as  would  aj^pear  from 
a  letter  received  from  his  mother  at  this  time.  Do  not,  he 
said,  in  reply,  "  put  any  faith  in  the  gossip  about  our  '  lavish- 
ing.' There  are  people  who  cannot  understand  that  one  can 
live  in  a  grand  house,  wear  fine  clothes,  and  yet  starve.  As  to 
my  wife,  her  elegant  garment  is  a  black  dress  which  I  gave  her 
five  years  ago,  and  yet  she  gains  everybody's  attention." 

Mrs.  Ericsson  was  a  woman  who  would  attract  attention  in 
any  dress.  She  was  above  the  medium  height ;  in  fact,  quite  as 
tall  as  her  husband,  who  was  five  feet  seven  and  one-half  inches. 
A  trifling  masculine  in  her  type,  but  bearing  herself  with  grace, 
her  beauty  and  dignity  of  manner  made  her  a  noticeable  figure 
wherever  she  went.  Her  husband  was  proud  of  her  beauty, 
and  she  was  equally  proud  of  his  talents,  but  his  mind  was  too 
much  occupied  with  his  work  to  leave  him  opportunity  for  those 
domestic  interchanges  which  are  the  recreation  of  leisure  hours. 
His  wife  was  not  a  woman  to  be  neglected,  and,  as  her  hus- 
band expressed  it,  was  "  jealous  of  a  steam-engine."  It  is  not 
the  habit  of  imperious  beauties  to  admit  even  a  Frankenstein  to 
rivalry,  and  Mrs.  Ericsson  soon  tired  of  the  isolation  in  which 
she  was  left.  She  did  not  like  America,  and  as  her  husband 
was  engaged  in  a  desperate  struggle  with  fortune,  it  was  finally 
decided  that  it  was  best  for  her  to  return  to  her  relations  in 
England  until  Ericsson  found  the  opportunity,  that  never  came, 
to  join  her  there.  He  made  such  allowance  for  her  support  as 
his  means  admitted  of  from  time  to  time,  and  they  continued 


116  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

in  correspondence  up  to  the  day  of  her  death,  without  again 
meeting, 

Ericsson  appears  to  have  stripped  himself  for  the  battle  he 
was  constantly  waging  against  conservatism,  and  it  left  him  lit- 
tle leisure  for  anything  else.  A  tender-hearted  and  affection- 
ate man  in  his  way,  his  intellect  dominated  his  affections,  and 
he  was  to  an  unusual  extent  independent  of  them.  They  were 
with  him  rather  sentiments  than  motive  forces,  and  he  gave 
himself  small  opportunity  for  their  cultivation.  His  love  for 
his  mother  was  always  controlling  with  him,  and  while  she  lived 
he  continued  in  constant  correspondence  with  her,  though  there 
were  times  of  intense  absorption  in  his  work  when  even  she  for 
the  moment  seems  to  have  been  forgotten.  His  check-book 
gives  proof,  however,  of  his  constant  recognition  of  the  claims 
of  filial  duty,  as  well  as  of  his  obligation  as  a  husband.  It 
seems  to  have  been  his  wish  that  his  wife  should  share  his  for- 
tunes in  the  United  States,  for  a  letter  to  him  from  her  sister 
shows  that  on  one  occasion  she  refused  to  leave  England  after 
he  had  paid  her  passage  across  the  ocean.  This  letter  was 
written  just  after  Mrs.  Ericsson's  death,  and  in  it  her  sister 
says,  that  "  Amelia's  "  last  words  were,  "  I  have  always  been  a 
trouble  to  you  all.     Forgive  me." 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE  SCREW  IN  WAR  VESSELS. 

Screw  Vessel  Ordered  for  the  Navy. — Captain  Stockton  calls  Ericsson 
to  His  Aid. — His  Testimony  to  Ericsson's  Ability. — The  Direct- 
acting  Screw  System. — Stockton's  Injustice  to  Ericsson. — The  Guns, 
"Oregon ''  and  "Peacemaker." — Disastrous  Explosion  of  the  Stock- 
ton Gun. — President  Tyler  Loses  Two  of  His  Cabinet. — Universal 
Excitement. — Success  of  the  "  Princeton." — Other  Naval  Vessels 
Rendered  Obsolete. — Ericsson's  Physical  Strength. 

"  TTTHILE  busily  engaged,"  said  Ericsson,  in  a  letter  already 
'  »  quoted  from,  "  and  perfectly  independent  of  Captain 
Stockton,  so  far  as  the  introduction  of  the  propeller  went,  I  un- 
expectedly received  a  letter  from  him  in  the  fall  of  1841,  ask- 
ing me  to  meet  him  at  Princeton,  K.  J,  There  he  informed 
me  that  he  had  received  orders  to  build  a  steamer  of  six  hun- 
dred tons  for  the  navy.  He  at  this  interview  consulted  me  as 
to  the  best  dimensions  for  such  a  vessel.  I  made  a  sketch  on 
the  spot,  and  after  some  discussion  he  agreed  to  my  proportions. 
He  then  desired  me  to  make  out  a  general  plan  for  the  whole 
ship,  arrangement  of  steam  machinery,  etc.  I  went  to  New 
York,  and  in  about  a  week  returned  to  Princeton,  with  such 
general  plans,  and  with  these  Captain  Stockton  was  delighted. 
I  also  brought  an  estimate  of  the  cost  of  the  steam  machinery, 
made  at  his  particular  request.  The  maximum  of  the  estimate 
was  seventy-five  thousand  dollars.  Captain  Stockton  told  me  he 
would  put  it  down  at  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  on  which  I 
remarked  that  it  was  too  much  ;  to  this  he  replied,  '  I  want  to 
make  ample  allowance  for  paying  you  for  the  use  of  patents,'  or 
words  to  that  efPect.  Captain  Stockton,  having  made  his  formal 
arrangements  with  the  Government  and  fixed  on  Messrs.  Merrick 
&  Town*  as  the  builders  of  the  engines,  desired  Mr.  Merrick 

•Concerning  the  machinery  of  the  Princeton,  Mr.  J.  Vaughan  Merrick, 
the  son  of  one  of  the  builders,  says  in  a  letter  to  the  author  of  this  biography : 


118  LIFE   OF   JOHN   EKICSSON. 

to  go  to  New  York  to  receive  my  instructions  with  regard  to 
the  engines.  Captain  Stockton  not  only  desired  me  to  make 
the  plans  and  superintend  the  manufacture  of  the  engines,  but 
he  frequently  complimented  me  as  the  only  man  in  America 
capable  of  doing  it. 

"  At  a  dinner  given  by  Captain  Stockton  to  the  Corpora- 
tion of  Princeton  on  the  day  the  Princeton  was  launched  at 
Philadelphia,  he  told  his  guests  he  had  been  all  over  the 
world  in  search  of  a  man  that  could  invent  or  carry  out  what 
he  thought  was  necessary  to  make  a  complete  ship  of  war; 
he  had  at  last  found  that  man.  '  lie  is,'  he  said,  '  my  friend 
here  by  my  side,  Captain  Ericsson,'  and  he  desired  the  com- 
pany to  drink  my  health  with  '  three  times  three,'  Such  were 
his  sentiments  then  concerning  the  man  who,  in  May,  1844, 
had  dwindled  into  an  '  ingenious  mechanic,'  '  a  mechanic  of 
some  skill.'  Again,  on  board  the  Princeton,  at  a  public  trial 
in  New  York  Bay,  Captain  Stockton  proposed  my  health  to 
hundreds  of  respectable  gentlemen  in  these  words :  '  Captain 
Ericsson,  the  most  extraordinary  mechanical  genius  of  the 
present  day.' " 

This  was  said  by  Ericsson  in  a  letter  written  in  1845  to  Mr. 
John  O.  Sargent  in  the  confidence  between  client  and  attorney, 
and  the  writer  further  says :  '•  I  am  ready  to  swear  to  the  con- 
tents if  needful."  Letters  not  necessary  to  produce  here,  as 
they  form  part  of  the  official  record  at  Washington,  show  these 
facts:  On  May  27,  1841,  Captain  Stockton  wrote  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Navy  transmitting  a  model  for  a  steam  ship-of-war 

"  The  machinery  of  the  Princeton  was  of  a  novel  type,  and  I  believe  has  never 
been  copied  (certainly  not  in  the  United  States^  although  its  performance  was 
good,  and  its  location  in  the  hull  was  low — an  excellent  point  for  war  ves- 
sels of  light  draught.  The  writer,  at  a  later  period,  when  a  draughtsman 
in  the  Southwark  Foundry,  made  several  sets  of  drawings  of  the  details  of 
these  engines  for  foreign  governments!' the  art  of  blue  printing  not  having  been 
invented^.  The  originals  were  the  handiwork  of  the  inventor,  and  were  beau- 
tiful specimens  of  work.  It  was  one  of  Ericsson's  great  peculiarities  that  his 
design  sprang  from  his  brain  in  so  perfect  a  shape  that  there  was  little  to  do 
except  to  embody  them  in  the  drawings.  I  tliiuk  tliat  Ericsson's  career 
proved  that  the  'pencil,  as  well  as  the  pen,  is  mightier  than  the  sword.  Napo- 
leon did  not  effect  greater  changes  in  the  face  of  Europe  than  has  Ericsson 
produced  in  naval  warfare,  and  tliese  latter  are  lasting,  while  the  former  have 
long  since  passed  into  other  forms." 


THE   SCEEW   m   WAK  VESSELS.  119 

and  asking:  that  Lieutenants  E.  R.  Thomson  and  "William  Hunt 
be  detailed  to  assist  him  in  preparing  the  drawings  to  show 
the  character  of  the  vessel  proposed.  This  request  was  granted 
on  June  1,  1S41.  September  21st,  Commodore  Charles  Stew- 
art, known  as  "  Old  Ironsides,"  from  the  frigate  Constitution 
which  he  immortalized,  was  informed  that  the  Secretary  of 
the  !N"avy  had  authorized  the  construction  at  the  Philadelphia 
Kavy  Yard,  commanded  bj  him,  of  '"'  a  steamer  of  six  hundred, 
tons  on  the  plan  proposed  by  Captain  Stockton  ;  steam  to  be 
the  main  propelling  power  upon  Ericsson's  plan."  He  was  fur- 
ther informed  that  Captain  Stockton  had  been  requested  "  to 
prepare  a  draft  of  the  plan  of  the  steamer." 

The  origin  of  the  plan  proposed  by  Captain  Stockton  is  in- 
dicated in  a  letter  addressed  by  him  to  Ericsson  more  than  two 
months  previous  to  this,  in  July,  ISll.     In  this  letter  he  said  : 

In  making  up  tlie  estimate  of  the  cost  of  the  ship,  it  will  be  neces- 
sary to  consider  what  must  be  put  down  for  the  use  of  your  patent- 
right.  It  will  be  necessary,  therefore,  for  you  to  write  me  a  letter, 
stating  your  views  on  that  subject.  As  a  great  effort  has  been  made  to 
get  a  ship  built  for  the  experiment,  I  think  you  had  better  say  to  me  in 
your  letter  that  your  charge  will  hereafter  be  (if  the  experiment  shall 

prove  successful) ,  but,  as  this  is  the  first  trial  on  so  large  a  scale,  I 

am  at  liberty  to  use  the  patents,  and  after  the  ship  is  tried  Government 
may  pay  for  theii-  use  in  that  shij)  whatever  sum  they  may  deem  proper. 

To  this  Ericsson  replied  as  follows  : 

New  York,  Astor  House,  July  28, 1841. 
To  Captatn  R.  F.  Stockton  : 

Sir  :  I  have  duly  received  your  communication  on  the  subject  of 
my  patent-right  for  the  ship  propeller  and  semi-cylindrical  steam-en- 
gine ;  in  reply  to  which  I  beg  to  propose  that  in  case  these  inventions 
should  be  applied  to  your  intended  steam-frigate,  all  considerations  re- 
lating to  my  charge  for  patent-right  be  deferred  until  after  the  comple- 
tion and  trial  of  the  said  patent  propeller  and  steam  machinery.  Should 
their  success  be  such  as  to  induce  Government  to  continue  the  use  of 
the  patents  for  the  navy,  I  submit  that  I  am  entitled  to  some  remunera- 
tion ;  but,  considering  the  liberality  that  thus  enables  me  to  have  the 
utility  of  the  patents  tested  on  a  very  large  scale,  and  the  advantages 
which  cannot  fail  to  be  derived  in  consequence,  I  beg  to  state  that 
whenever  the  efficiency  of  the  intended  machinery  of  the  steam-frigate 


120  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

shall  have  been  duly  tested,  I  shall  be  satisfied  with  whatever  sum  you 
may  please  to  recommend,  or  the  Government  see  fit  to  pay  for  the 
patent-right. 

I  am,  sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

John  Ericsson. 

In  a  letter  to  Sargent,  written  a  few  years  later,  "  February 
15,  1815,"  Ericsson  said :  "  I  do  not  understand  why  Captain 
■  Stockton  wanted  the  services  of  Lieutenants  Hunt  and  Thom- 
son in  connection  with  the  j)l<^^^  of  the  Princeton^  excepting 
as  a  vehicle  of  communication  between  him  and  myself.  As 
such,  these  gentlemen  certainly  were  useful,  but  in  no  other 
manner,  as  neither  of  tliem  pretends  to  the  slightest  knowl- 
edge of  mechanics.  The  making  of  a  plan  for  a  common 
wheelbarrow  requires  far  more  knowledge  in  mechanics  than 
possessed  by  these  officers.  Captain  Stockton  himself,  on  the 
other  hand,  never  made  a  plan  in  his  life." 

Stockton's  whole  stock  in  trade  as  a  naval  designer  appears 
to  have  been  the  model  of  a  vessel  prepared  by  Ericsson  when 
they  were  together  in  England.  "In  the  summer  of  1839," 
Ericsson  tells  us  in  one  of  his  letters,  "  I  prepared  a  model  of  a 
war  screw-steamer  of  two  thousand  tons,  with  a  set  of  detailed 
drawing  plans,  for  Captain  Stockton.  These  plans  and  this 
model  Captain  Stockton  presented  to  the  United  States  Kavy 
Department  in  the  fall  of  1839."  This  was  before  Ericsson 
arrived  in  this  country. 

Again  Ericsson  says : 

I  am  the  father  of  the  direct-acting  screw  system.  On  leaving  Eng- 
land for  this  country  the  whole  engineering  world  opposed  me,  and  ridi- 
culed the  idea  of  driving  engines  fast  enough  to  turn  the  screw  direclh/. 
I,  however,  adhered  to  my  j^lan,  and  built  over  twenty  direct-acting  en- 
gines, not  one  of  which  ever  failed,  before  a  single  individual  followed  my 
system.  Smith  and  the  whole  Archimedean  screw  fi-aternity  advocated 
the  cog-wheel  system,  and  the  Maudsleys,  Watts,  Kennies,  Seawards, 
and  Napiers  all  built  cog-wheel  engines  for  the  British  Government 
with  such  bad  success  that  the  screw  system  was  on  the  eve  of  being  dis- 
carded from  the  navy.  In  the  meantime  some  forty  propeller  vessels 
had  been  fitted  out  in  this  country  under  my  patent,  all  with  direct- 
acting  engines ;  and  presently  the  Princetxm  appeared  in  the  Mediterra- 
nean, and  the  eyes  of  the  naval  authorities  of  England  were  opened  and 
the  direct-acting  system  insisted  on.     The  host  of  great  engineering 


THE  SCKEW  IN  WAR  VESSELS.  121 

houses  now  all  entered  the  field,  and  all  sorts  of  direct-acting  engines 
were  planned  by  men  who  had  no  experience  in  the  working  of  engines 
of  quick  action.  I  say,  without  hesitation,  that  most  of  their  engines 
are  disgraceful  to  the  profession.  These  boasted  engines  do  not  even 
hold  out  dui'ing  the  trial  trips  over  the  measured  mile,  in  the  placid 
waters  of  Stokes  Bay.  Did  you  ever  hear  of  the  direct-acting  engines  of 
the  PHncet07i  being  out  of  order  during  her  remarkable  cruise?  It  is, 
I  believe,  on  record  that  this  ship  was  under  steam  for  forty  consecutive 
days  and  nights,  at  Vera  Cruz.* 

Captain  Stockton's  orders  "  to  superintend  the  building  of 
said  steamer  [viz.,  the  Princetoii\^  under  the  Commandant  of 
the  Navy  Yard  in  Philadelphia,"  were  dated  at  Washington, 
September  22,  1841,  and  addressed  to  him  at  Princeton,  N.J. 
Immediately  upon  their  receipt,  Captain  Stockton  appears  to 
have  visited  Philadelphia  for  he  wrote  from  that  city,  Octo- 
ber 2,  to  Ericsson  in  New  York : 

I  will  meet  you  at  the  depot  at  Princeton  on  Tuesday  morning,  if 
you  can  make  it  convenient  to  dine  with  me  on  that  day ;  you  may  re- 
turn to  New  York  in  the  night  train.  I  have  received  orders  to  build  a 
ship  of  six  hundred  tons  ;  I  have  remonstrated  against  it.  [He  wanted 
a  larger  vessel.]  In  the  meantime  I  wish  to  converse  with  you  on  the 
subject.  E.  F.  S. 

"  Tuesday  "  was  the  5th.  As  the  result  of  the  conference 
on  that  day,  apparently,  Stockton  wrote  from  Philadelphia, 
October  8,  saying  to  "  Captain  Ericsson,  Astor  House,  New 
York:" 

I  wish  you  would  make  the  drawings  of  a  ship  with  the  dimensions 
we  spoke  of.  I  will  go  to  Washington  as  soon  as  you  can  send  them  to 
me.  Put  both  bow  and  stem  to  her,  and  make  her  midship  section  ac- 
cording to  the  plan  we  spoke  of  at  my  house. 

Next  followed  a  series  of  calls  for  one  thing  and  another. 
October  13th  Stockton  wished  "a  drawing  of  the  amidship 
section  with  engine,  as  well  as  the  others."  October  17th  he 
called  for  various  details  which  he  was  required  to  send  to 
Washington,  "  cost  of  hull,  equipments,  etc.,  etc.,  as  well  as  for 
the  engines,  displacement,  metacentre,  centre  of  gravity,  centre 

*  Letter  to  John  O.  Sargent,  dated  May  5,  1854. 


122  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

of  flotation,  five  midship  sections,  etc."  "You  are  so  much 
better  skilled  in  these  matters,"  he  says,  very  truthfully,  "that 
you  will  have  these  all  ready  by  the  time  I  get  through  my 
work,  when  I  propose  to  take  them  all  to  "Washington." 

Kovember  21,  1S41,  the  working  drawings  for  the  engines 
were  called  for ;  April  13,  1843,  the  "  drawings  for  the  wheel 
and  gun-carriage."  Altogether  one  hundred  and  twenty-four 
working  drawings  were  furnished  by  Ericsson,  occupying,  with 
the  sketches,  skeleton  plans,  and  diagrams  necessary  in  their 
construction,  two  hundred  and  seven  days  of  the  time  of  a 
man  who  could  do  in  one  day  double  the  work  of  an  ordinary 
draughtsman  ;  one  hundred  and  thirteen  days  were  devoted  to 
actual  superintendence  at  Kew  York  and  Philadelphia,  and  in 
travelling  to  and  fro.  This  was  but  part  of  the  labor  to  which 
Ericsson  gave  two  of  the  best  years  of  his  life.  It  was  the 
strictly  professional  service  of  an  engineer,  and  could  not  by 
any  honest  possibility  be  included  in  Ericsson's  expression  of 
his  willingness  to  leave  the  question  of  the  j)ayrn€nt  for  his  pat- 
ents to  the  generosity  of  the  Government. 

He  was,  besides,  put  to  no  inconsiderable  expense  during  the 
two  years  for  office  expenses,  travelling  expense,  postages  (which 
were  a  serious  matter  in  those  days),  and  the  like.  The  manu- 
facturers of  the  machinery,  guns,  gun-carriages,  etc.,  testified 
that  they  did  their  work  from  Ericsson's  drawings  and  under 
his  directions.  Stockton  gave  his  assurance  over  and  over  again 
that  if  the  vessel  succeeded  there  would  be  no  difficulty  about 
pay,  and  a  letter  from  him  to  Ericsson,  dated  Philadelphia,  Feb- 
ruary 2,  1844,  shows  that  he  acknowledged  the  obligation  by  a 
partial  payment  of  $1,150. 

It  is  necessary  to  be  thus  specific  in  order  to  lay  the  basis  for 
a  proper  understanding  of  the  action  taken  by  Captain  Stockton 
upon  the  account  rendered  for  these  services  when  this  account 
was  referred  to  him  by  the  DepartIK'^"^  By  this  time  the  man 
whose  genius  he  had  extolled  in  England,  and  to  whom  he  had 
held  out  such  brilliant  anticipations ;  the  one  man  he  had 
hunted  the  world  over  to  find,  who  could  build  a  complete  ship; 
the  only  man  in  America  capable  of  making  the  engines  she  re- 
quired, etc.,  had  become  "  a  very  ingenious  mechanic  by  the 
name  of  Ericsson." 


THE  SCREW   IN   WAR  VESSELS.  123 

In  the  letter  dated  February  2,  1844,  liere  referred  to, 
Stockton  said :  "  Will  you  send  me  a  bill  and  receipt  for  the 
$1,160  which  I  paid  you  for  services  rendered  in  constructing  and 
superintending  machinery,  etc.,  for  tlie  U.  S.  ship  Princeton,  I 
will  include  it  in  the  Princeton's  expenses,  and  repay  myself  for 
the  advance  in  that  way  if  I  can."  In  a  note  accompanying 
this  letter  Ericsson  says:  "The  preceding  letter  for  the  first 
time  suggested  to  Captain  Ericsson  that  any  difficulty  was  an- 
ticipated in  securing  him  an  adequate  compensation  for  his  ser- 
vices in  the  construction  of  the  Princeton.''^  When  Ericsson's 
account  was  referred  by  the  Department  to  Stockton  he  sent  in 
reply  a  letter  which  extinguished  Ericsson's  hope  of  obtaining 
pay  for  his  services  out  of  the  appropriation  for  the  Princeton^ 
to  which  it  was  properly  chargeable.  The  events  immediately 
succeeding  the  completion  of  the  vessel  explain  this  change  of 
attitude  toward  the  man  Stockton  had  before  extolled. 

I  have  mentioned  the  fact  that  Ericsson  brought  with  him 
from  England  a  wrought-iron  gun  of  his  own  designing.  This 
gun  was  built  at  the  Mersey  Iron  Works,  near  Liverpool,  and 
was  forged  of  the  very  best  material,  as  the  manufacturers  as- 
serted. Still,  it  had  the  defect  of  a  forged  gun  ;  strong  longi- 
tudinally, it  was  weak  transversely  and  opened  cracks  under  the 
proof  firing  in  rear  of  the  trunnions,  and  thus  near  the  butt  of 
the  gun.  To  remedy  this,  Ericsson  adopted  an  expedient  now 
in  universal  use.  Hoops  three  and  one-half  inches  thick,  made 
of  the  best  American  wrought  iron,  were  shrunk  onto  the 
breech  of  the  piece  up  to  the  trunnion  bands.  These  hoops 
were  arranged  in  two  tiers,  one  above  the  other,  in  such  a  man- 
ner as  to  break  joint,  and  they  were  so  perfectly  matched  as  to 
appear  like  a  single  band. 

That  this  expedient  proved  entirely  successful  is  shown  by 
the  fact  that  the  gun  is  still  intact,  and  is  now  (1890),  on  exhi- 
bition at  one  of  our  I^avy  Yards,  after  having  been  fired  some 
three  hundred  times  with  chai-ges  varying  from  twenty-five  to 
thirty-five  pounds  of  powder  (enormous  in  that  day)  and  a  two 
hundred  and  twelve-pound  shot.  In  1842,  before  going  aboard 
the  Princeton^  this  gun  was  fired  from  one  hundred  and  twenty 
to  one  hundred  and  fifty  times,  after  being  banded  ;  and  aimed 
by  its  designer,  the  ex-Swedish  artillerist,  Ericsson,  it  pierced  a 


124  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

target  of  four  and  one-half  inches  of  wrouo^ht  iron.     This  tar- 
get  is  also  still  to  be  seen. 

Thus  the  discovery  that  this  thickness  of  armor  was  no  pro- 
tection against  artillery  fire  was  made  by  Ericsson  many  years 
in  advance  of  others. 

Fhed  by  Ericsson's  example,  Stockton  aspired  to  bnild  a 
gun  of  his  own.  He  had  one  forged  at  Hamersley  Forge  and 
sent  it  to  the  Phcenix  Foundry,  ]S'ew  York,  to  be  bored  and 
finished  under  Ericsson's  directions.  It  was  of  the  same  calibre 
as  the  imported  gun,  viz.,  twelve  inches,  but  a  foot  more  in  diam- 
eter at  the  breech,  and  much  heavier.  This  Stockton  gun  was 
considered  at  the  time  to  be  a  remarkable  specimen  of  work- 
manship, and  great  confidence  was  placed  in  its  strength,  be- 
cause of  the  supposed  superior  quality  of  American  iron ;  it 
was  believed  to  be  capable  of  sustaining  the  explosion  of  any 
amount  of  powder  that  could  be  put  into  it,  having  been  thor- 
ou2:hlv  tested  by  charges  varying  from  twenty-five  to  fifty 
pounds.  It  was  the  largest  mass  of  iron  that  had  at  that  time 
been  brought  under  the  forging  hammer,  and  had  a  massive  ap- 
pearance by  the  side  of  its  slender  companion  on  the  Prince- 
ion. 

But  this  appearance  of  strength  was  deceptive.  The  fibrous 
quality,  giving  strength  to  the  iron,  was  in  some  way  destroyed 
in  the  process  of  manufacture,  and  the  specific  gravity  of  the 
metal  reduced  nine  per  cent,  below  that  of  ordinary  iron.  This 
fact  was  not  discovered  until  it  was  too  late.  Ericsson  had  a 
natural  partiality  for  his  own  gun  and  advised  Stockton  to  use 
it  for  the  purpose  of  exhibition  instead  of  the  Peacemaker^  as 
the  second  gun  was  called,  but  he  does  not  appear  to  have 
doubted  the  sufficient  strength  of  the  Stockton  gun. 

Describing  the  trial  of  this  gun  a  newspaper  letter,  dated 
Xew  York,  January  IT,  1S44,  says  : 

Instead  of  being  placed  on  the  ground  in  some  remote  comer,  as  is 
nsnal  in  proving  guns  of  not  one-third  of  her  calibre,  snch  was  Stock- 
ton's confidence  in  this  wrought-iron  piece  that  the  proving  vras  actually 
performed  on  board  a  small  vessel  of  some  twenty  feet  beam  and  seventy 
feet  in  length.  This  appears  the  more  astonishing  when  we  consider 
that  the  charge  was  fifty  pounds  of  powder ;  and  a  charge  that  might  well 
be  required  for  the  capacious  maw  of  a  gun  fifteen  feet  long,  with  a  bore 


THE   SCREW   IX   WAR  VESSELS.  125 

of  twelve  inches,  carrying  a  ball  of  two  hundred  and  thirteen  pounds 
weight,  and  itself  weighing  ten  tons. 

So  much  for  Captain  Stockton's  big  gun — the  largest  piece  of 
wrought-iron  in  the  world,  and  forged  in  this  city,  of  American  iron  ! 

Here,  where  four  short  years  ago  they  could  not  forge  an  ordinary 
steam-engine  shaft !  There  was  a  christening  scene  on  board  the  Prince- 
t07i  yesterday,  and  from  a  font  of  champagne  this  magnificent  piece  of 
ordnance  was  appropriately  baptized  the  Peacemaker.  * 

In  his  diary  under  tlie  date  of  February  20,  1844,t  John 
Quincy  Adams  says : 

The  House  of  Representatives  yesterday  adjourned  over  till  to- 
morrow, for  the  avowed  pui-pose  of  enabling  the  members  to  visit  the 
Princeton,  a  war-steamer  and  sailing  vessel  combined,  with  the  steam 
machinery  of  Ericsson's  propeller,  all  within  the  hull  of  the  vessel  and 
below  the  water-line.  This  vessel,  the  "  gimcrackof  sundiy  other  inven- 
tions "  of  Captain  Stockton  himself,  was  built  under  his  dii-ectious,  and 
was  commanded  by  him.  She  was  ordered  round  here  to  be  exhibited  to 
the  President  and  the  heads  of  the  Executive  Departments,  and  to  the 
members  of  both  Houses  of  Congress  to  fire  their  souls  with  a  patriotic 
ardor  for  a  naval  war.  On  Satm-day  last,  by  invitation  from  Captain 
Stockton,  the  vessel  was  visited  by  the  President,  the  Heads  of  Depart- 
ments and  Senators,  and  for  this  day,  at  eleven  o'clock.  Captain  Stock- 
ton has  issued  a  card  of  invitation  to  every  member  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, besides  a  general  one  in  the  Xational  Intelligencer  this  morn- 
ing. I  went  with  Isaac  Hull  Adams  to  Greenleaf's  Point,  and  thence 
embarked  in  the  Princeton^s  barge  on  board  that  vessel. 

I  was  punctual  to  the  hour  of  eleven  and  the  first  of  the  company 
that  came.  Captain  Stockton  received  me  with  great  politeness,  and 
showed  me  all  the  machinery  of  the  ship.  Afterward  upward  of  a  hun- 
dred members  of  the  house  came  on  board.  The  two  great  guns  are 
called  the  Peacemaker  and  the  Orator  [Oregon^.  A  salute  was  fired  from 
the  carronades,  and  the  Peacemaker  was  three  times  discharged. 

Eight  days  later,  February  28th,  we  find  this  entry  :  f 

Dies  ircE.  I  had  received  an  invitation  from  Captain  Robert  F. 
Stockton  to  another  party  of  pleasure,  with  the  ladies  of  my  family,  on 
board  the  war-steamer  Princeton.  We  declined  the  invitation.  I  had  en- 
gaged to  dine  at  six  o'clock  this  evening  with  Mr.  Grinnell  and  Mr. 
Winthrop,  in  company  with  Mr.  Pakenham,  the  new  British  Minister. 

•  Boston  Post  of  January  20,  1844. 

f  Memoirs  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  Comprising  Portions  of  His  Diary,  from 
1795  to  1848.     Edited  by  Charles  Francis  Adams.     Vol.  xi. 


126  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

.  .  .  While  wo  were  at  dinner,  Jolin  Barney  burst  into  the  chamber, 
rushed  up  to  General  Scott,  and  told  him  with  groans  that  the  Presi- 
dent wished  to  see  him  ;  that  the  great  gun  on  board  the  Princeton,  the 
Peacemaker,  had  burst  and  killed  the  Secretary  of  State,  Upshur  ;  the 
Secretaiy  of  the  Navy,  T.  "W.  Gilmer  ;  Captain  Beverly  Kennon  ;  Virgil 
Maxey ;  a  Colonel  Gardiner,  of  New  York,  and  a  colored  servant  of  the 
President,  and  despei*ately  wounded  several  of  the  crew.  General  Scott 
soon  left  the  table,  Mr.  "Webster  shortly  after,  also  Senator  Bayard.  I 
came  home  before  ten  in  the  evening. 

29th.  At  the  House,  immediately  after  the  reading  of  the  Journal,  a 
message  was  received  from  the  President,  announcing  the  lamentable 
catastrophe  of  yesterday,  bewailing  the  loss  of  his  two  Secretaries,  with 
others,  and  hoping  that  Congress  will  not  be  discouraged  by  this  acci- 
dent from  going  on  to  build  more  and  larger  war-steamers  than  the 
Princeton. 

The  biographer  of  Commodore  Stockton  *  says  : 

During  the  progress  down  the  Potomac  the  great  guns  of  the  Prince- 
ton had  been  again  and  again  discharged,  until  public  curiosity  appeared 
to  be  satiated.  The  company  had  returned  below,  and  at  the  festive 
board  the  voice  of  hilarity  resounded  through  the  proud  ship.  Some 
of  the  guests  had  commenced  retiring  and  were  renewing  their  scrutiny 
of  the  different  parts  of  the  ship.  Captain  Stockton  had  risen  to  offer 
a  toast  complimentaiy  to  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  Republic.  As  he 
rose,  with  his  wine-glass  filled  in  his  hand,  an  officer  entered  and  in- 
formed him  that  some  of  the  company  desired  one  of  the  great  guns 
to  be  again  discharged.  Captain  Stockton  shook  his  head  and  saying, 
"  No  more  guns  to-night,"  dismissed  the  officer.  He  soon  again  re- 
turned, while  Captain  Stockton  was  speaking  on  the  subject  of  his  toast, 
with  a  message  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  expressive  of  his  desire 
to  see  one  of  the  big  guns  fired  once  more. 

This  message  Captain  Stockton  considered  equivalent  to  an  order,  and 
immediately  went  on  deck  to  obey  it.  He  jjlaced  himself  upon  the  breech 
of  the  gun,  aimed  and  fired.  Feeling  a  sensible  shock,  stunned  and  en- 
veloped in  a  cloud  of  smoke,  for  an  instant  he  could  not  account  for  his 
sensations.  But  in  a  few  seconds,  as  the  smoke  cleared,  and  the  groans 
of  the  wounded  and  the  shrieks  of  the  bystanders  who  were  unhurt  re- 
sounded over  the  decks,  the  temble  catastrophe  which  had  happened 
was  revealed.  He  was  severely  hurt,  but  the  strength  of  his  intellectual 
powers,  now  intensely  concentrated,  sustained  him.  Calmly  and  clearly 
his  voice  pealed  over  the  elements  of  confusion  and  disturbance  ;  a  few 
brief  orders,  recalling  his  men  to  a  sense  of  duty,  were  given,  the  dead 
and  wounded  ascertained,  and  all  proper  dispositions  respecting  both 

*  Life  and  Speeches  of  Robert  F.  Stockton.     New  York,  1856. 


THE   SCEEW   IN   WAR  VESSELS.  127 

being  made,  wlien,  as  he  turned  to  leave  the  sad  scene,  he  fell  into  the 
arms  of  his  men,  exhausted  physically  and  was  borne  insensible  to  his 
bed. 

"  There  were  two  hundred  ladies  on  board,"  Philip  Hone 
tells  us : 

But,  fortunately,  they  were  all  below,  dining  and  drinking  toasts. 
The  noise  of  mirth  and  joviality  below  mingled  with  the  groans  of 
the  dying  on  deck.  By  this  circumstance  they  were  saved.  Not  one 
of  the  ladies  was  injured.  But  oh,  the  anguish  of  wives  and  daughters 
at  the  sight  of  the  mangled  remains  of  their  husbands  and  fathers. 
Nothing  so  dreadful  has  ever  happened  in  this  country,  except  the 
shipwreck  of  the  Eose  in  Bloom  and  the  conflagration  of  the  Eichmond 
theatre.  The  wife  of  Governor  Gilmer  was  on  board.  The  stoiy 
of  her  woe  is  melancholy  and  touching  in  the  extreme.  Her  lamented 
husband  entered  upon  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  a  few  days 
since,  and  the  estimation  in  which  he  was  held  is  proved  by  his  nomina- 
tion having  been  unanimously  confirmed  without  debate  by  the  Senate. 
Mr.  Gardner's  two  daughters  were  also  witnesses  of  their  father's  death. 

President  Tyler  gave  a  new  instance  of  folly  and  bad  taste  in  a 
toast  that  he  gave  at  the  entertainment  which  terminated  so  tragically 
on  board  the  Princeton.  It  was  :  ''  Oregon,  the  Peacemaker,  and  Cap- 
tain Stockton."  Oregon  is  the  bone  of  contention  at  this  time  between 
Great  Britain  and  ourselves,  to  settle  which  difficulty  a  new  minister 
has  just  landed  on  our  shores.  It  is  a  subject  which  requires  to  be 
handled  with  the  greatest  delicacy.  The  Peacemaker  is  the  great  gun 
which  was  to  hurl  defiance  at  Great  Britain  or  any  other  nation  which 
might  stand  between  the  wind  and  Colonel  Benton's  popularity.  Cap- 
tain Stockton  is  the  fire-brand  which  was  to  ignite  the  whole  ;  and  in 
the  excited  state  of  the  public  mind  on  this  siibject,  the  President  gives 
this  mischievous  sentiment.  The  Peacemaker  at  the  same  moment 
broke  the  jjeace  in  the  manner  which  has  been  described,  and  amidst 
the  melancholy  reflections  arising  from  this  fatal  day's  excursion  will  be 
mingled  a  feeling  of  contempt  for  this  act  of  folly.* 

David  Gardiner,  one  of  the  victims  of  the  disaster,  was  a 
descendant  of  the  lords  of  the  manor  of  Gardiner's  Island,  off 
the  east  coast  of  Long  Island.  His  remains  were  carried  to 
the  Wliite  House,  and  the  event  resulted  in  the  marriage  of  his 
beautiful  daughter,  Julia,  to  President  Tyler. 

The   injuries  of  Captain  Stockton  were,  fortunately,  only 

*  Diary  of  Philip  Hone,  1828-1851,   edited  by  Bayard  Tuckerman,  vol.  ii., 
p.  207. 


128  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON". 

slight.  lie  sooQ  recovered  and  demanded  a  Court  of  Inquiry  to 
investigate  the  question  of  his  responsibility  for  this  sad  acci- 
dent, turning  his  rejoicing  into  mourning.  Tliis  court  exon- 
erated Stockton  from  all  blame.  In  their  report  they  referred 
to  the  consultations  held  by  him  "with  three  gentlemen  pos- 
sessing from  their  scientific  acquirements  and  practical  experi- 
ence on  such  subjects,  very  superior  qualifications  in  questions 
of  this  character ;  and  whose  opinions  were  entitled  to  high  re- 
spect, Mr.  "William  Young,  of  the  ^Yest  Point  and  other  foun- 
dries, Captain  Ericsson,  and  Francis  B.  Ogden,  Esq." 

During  his  triumphant  exhibition  of  his  pet  vessel,  Stockton 
had  apparently  forgotten  Ericsson,  and  an  examination  of  the 
contemporary  accounts  of  her  performances  shows  how  little 
was  said  of  him  in  connection  with  this  triumph  of  naval  con- 
struction. This  neglect  was  so  marked  that  a  writer  in  the 
Brother  Jonathan^  a  New  York  newspaper  of  March  2,  1844, 
was  tempted  to  say: 


We  apprehend  that  it  will  be  necessary  for  his  sober  friends  to 
provide  the  gallant  admiral  of  the  great  Tyler  squadron  with  a  strait 
jacket.  What  with  revolutionizing  New  Jersey  by  his  eloquence,  and  the 
art  of  naval  warfare  by  his  inventions,  he  is  in  a  fair  way  of  having  his 
head  turned.  If  we  can  believe  all  we  see  in  the  newspapers,  he  will 
hardly  be  satisfied  till  the  nation  shall  give  him  an  opportunity  with  his 
steamer  Princeton,  to  annihilate  a  few  British  squadrons,  and  burn  down 
the  city  of  London.  We  do  not  desire  in  the  least  to  detract  from  the 
credit  to  which  Captain  Stockton  is  entitled  for  the  construction  of  the 
Princeton.  He  deserves  praise  for  having  jjut  himself  in  the  hands  of 
a  thoroughbred  engineer,  and  for  having  acquiesced  in  his  suggestions 
and  followed  his  advice. 

A  remarkable  result  has  been  accomplished,  manifesting  a  fertility 
of  invention  and  a  skill  in  construction  which  indicate  the  mind  and 
the  hand  of  a  master  in  theoretical  and  practical  mechanics.  The  na- 
tion is  well  aware  to  whom  our  na\'y  has  been  indebted  for  this  new 
wonder,  and  we  should  not  be  surprised  even  if  Congress  should  some 
day  attain  the  information  which  Captain  Stockton  has  withheld  in  his 
recent  report  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  It  is  not  a  little  surprising 
that  in  commending  to  Congress  the  numerous  striking  inventions  and 
constructions  which  give  his  single  ship  her  boasted  advantage  over  en- 
tire navies,  he  should  have  omitted  to  mention  even  the  name  of  the 
individual  who  had  invented,  planned,  and  superintended  the  whole  of 
them. 


THE  SCREW   IX    AVAR   VESSELS.  129 

The  report  here  referred  to  was  forwarded  by  Stockton 
February  5,  1844,  after  the  Princeton  had  received  her  arma- 
ment on  board  and  was  fitting  for  sea.  He  dwelt  with  enthu- 
siasm upon  the  "  great  and  obvious  advantages ''  she  possessed 
"  over  both  sailing  ships  and  steamers  propelled  in  the  usual 
way."  With  engines  lying  "  snug  in  the  bottom  of  the  vessel 
out  of  the  reach  of  an  enemy's  shot,"  showing  no  chimney  and 
"  making  no  noise,  smoke,  or  agitation  of  the  water  (and,  if  she 
chooses,  no  sail)  she  can  sui-prise  an  enemy,"  and  "  at  pleasure 
take  her  own  position  and  her  own  distance." 

The  Princeton  was  the  only  war  vessel  that  then  possessed 
these  advantages  ;  she  had  by  far  the  most  formidable  guns 
atloat  and  could  "  throw  a  greater  weight  of  metal  than  most 
frigates,  with  a  certainty  heretofore  unknown."  "  By  the  ap- 
plication of  the  various  arts  to  the  purposes  of  war  on  board 
the  Princeton^''  said  Stockton,  "  it  is  believed  that  the  art  of 
gunnery  for  sea  service  has,  for  the  first  time,  been  reduced  to 
something  like  mathematical  certainty.  The  distance  to  which 
these  guns  can  throw  their  shot  at  every  necessary  angle  of  ele- 
vation, has  been  ascertained  by  a  series  of  careful  experiments. 
The  distance  from  the  ship  to  any  object  is  readily  ascertained 
with  an  instrument  on  board,  contrived  for  that  purpose,  by  an 
observation  which  it  requires  but  an  instant  to  make,  and  by 
inspection  without  calculation.  By  self-acting  locks  the  gun 
can  be  fired  accurately  at  the  necessary  elevation — no  matter 
what  the  motion  of  the  ship  may  be.  It  is  confidently  believed 
that  this  small  ship  will  be  able  to  battle  with  any  vessel,  how- 
ever large,  if  she  is  not  invincible  against  any  foe.  The  im- 
provements in  the  art  of  war,  adopted  on  board  the  Princeton^ 
may  be  productive  of  more  important  results  than  anything 
that  has  occurred  since  the  invention  of  gunpowder.  The  nu- 
merical force  of  the  navies,  so  long  boasted,  may  be  set  at 
nought.  The  ocean  may  again  become  neutral  ground  ;  and  the 
rights  of  the  smallest,  as  well  as  the  greatest  nation,  may  once 
more  be  respected." 

All  of  this  was  true,  and  it  was  further  true  that  to  the  ge- 
nius of  John  Ericsson  were  due  these  changes  which  inevitably 
revolutionized  naval  methods  and  speedily  compelled  the  re- 
construction of  every  great  navy.  This  important  fact  Cap- 
9 


130  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

tain  Stockton  omitted  to  mention  in  his  report.  The  name  of 
Ericsson  did  not  appear  there,  and  he  left  it  to  be  inferred,  if 
he  did  not  directly  state,  that  it  was  to  Stockton  himself  that 
the  country  was  indebted  for  this  marvel  of  a  naval  vessel.  In 
a  measure  this  was  true.  "While  it  is  not  certain  that  Ericsson 
might  not  have  otherwise  obtained  an  opportunity  to  develop 
in  practice  the  ideas  he  had  elaborated  a  dozen  years  before,  it 
is  evident  that  this  opportunity  did  come  to  him  in  1842-44, 
through  Stockton.  The  two  men  were  necessary  to  each  other, 
and  if  there  had  been  a  sufficiently  generous  recognition  of  this 
fact  on  both  sides,  even  the  disaster  attending  the  Peacemaker 
might  not  have  prevented  them  from  together  accomplishing 
great  results  for  our  navy. 

The  history  of  gun  construction  shows  how  much  tentative 
effort  is  required  to  develop  even  a  sound  theory  in  ordnance, 
and  in  the  half  century  and  more  that  has  passed  since  Erics- 
son drew  the  plan  of  his  twelve-inch  gun  nothing  has  occurred 
to  show  that  he  was  mistaken  in  contending,  as  he  did  to  the 
last,  that  he  was  on  the  right  track  with  his  forged  and  hooped 
gun.  On  the  contrary,  the  development  of  heavy  ordnance 
thus  far  has  been  precisely  in  his  direction.  The  two  men 
upon  whom  we  principally  depended  throughout  our  Civil  "War 
for  heavy  guns.  Major  T.  J.  Rodman  and  Captain  Robert  C. 
Parrott,  both  testified  that  their  inventions  dated  from  studies 
prompted  by  the  bursting  of  the  Peacemakir* 

"  I  do  not  pretend,'-  said  Parrott,  "  to  be  the  inventor  of 
the  idea  of  putting  a  band  on  the  gun,  because  that  thing  has 
been  tried  before,  but  I  believe  my  gun  is  the  first  banded  gun 
that  was  ever  actually  introduced  into  the  service  of  any  coun- 
try as  part  of  its  armament."  This  is  perhaps  true  in  the  sense 
in  which  the  word  "introduced"  is  here  used,  for  the  ill  fate 
of  the  PeacemaJcer  prompted  the  transfer  of  the  Oregon  to  a 
Xavy  Yard,  where  it  has  since  remained.  But  the  idea  was 
there,  and  had  onr  ordnance  officers  kept  their  heads,  and 
availed  themselves  of  the  talent  and  experience  Ericsson  was 
ready  to  place  at  their  disposal,  they  might  have  led  the  world 
in  ordnance  from  that  time  on.     As  to  his  own  forged  and 

*  Report  of  the  Joint  Committee  on  the  Conduct  of  the  War.  Second  Sea- 
sion,  38th  Congress,  voL  ii.,  pp.  99,  136. 


THE   SCREW  IN   WAR   VESSELS.  131 

hooped  gun  he  always  contended  that  none  of  his  works  fur- 
nished better  evidence  of  his  thorough  knowledge  of  dynamics 
and  his  practical  experience  of  the  strength  of  materials. 
Twenty  one  years  ago  he  declared  that  nothing  more  reliable 
had,  up  to  that  time,  been  produced,  and  this  declaration 
may  be  repeated  now.  Stockton's  imitation  was  not  Ericsson's 
gun. 

"  '  The  United  States  Government  having  been  the  first  to 
introduce  heavy  wrought-iron  ordnance,  why  does  it  not  con- 
tinue to  build  guns  of  that  material  ? '  European  artillerists 
repeatedly  put  this  question.  Probably  the  answer  will  be 
found  in  the  fact  that,  although  having  in  the  meantime  suc- 
cessfully constructed  wrought  -  iron  ordnance  of  considerable 
size,  the  first  essay  at  building  heavy  guns  for  naval  purposes 
proved  most  disastrous."  * 

As  to  the  gun-carriage  and  the  "friction  gear,"  by  which  the 
recoil  of  the  gun  was  controlled,  nothing  more  reliable  was 
contrived  until  Ericsson  undertook  the  handling  of  the  enor- 
mous monitor  ordnance.  Of  the  Oregon  its  author  says :  "  Ex- 
perienced commodores  at  the  time  protested  loudly  against  the 
proposition  to  '  mount  the  monster  gun '  on  board  a  vessel  so 
lightly  built  as  the  Princeton^  insisting  that,  among  other  dif- 
ficulties, the  breeching  would  tear  her  upper  works  to  pieces. 
It  was  urged  by  the  opponents  of  my  new  system  that  the 
handling  of  such  guns  at  sea  would  prove  impossible,  the  con- 
structing carriages  of  sufficient  strength  being  pointed  out  as 
impracticable ;  while  the  imprudence  on  the  part  of  the  Navy 
Department  of  intrusting  such  matters  to  mere  engineering 
skill  was  severely  criticised.  In  spite  of  the  remonstrances, 
however.  Captain  Stockton's  influence  with  the  Government 
prevailed.  In  the  meantime  the  problem  of  handling  the 
twelve-inch  gun  received  due  attention.  Calculations  of  the 
dynamic  equivalent  of  the  recoil  convinced  me  that  a  moderate 
resistance,  if  continuous  and  uniform,  would  suffice  to  bring  the 
piece  to  rest  in  less  space  than  that  required  by  breeching. 
Friction,  being  the  simplest  means  of  obtaining  a  continuous  re- 
sistance, was  accordingly  resorted  to."  * 

*  Contributions  to  the  Centennial  Exhibition.     By  J.  Ericsson.    1876. 


132  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

The  instrument  for  measuring  distances,  spoken  of  in  Stock- 
ton's repoi-t,  Ericsson  had  just  invented,  and  in  1S51  it  was 
awarded  a  prize  at  the  Loudon  Exhibition.  It  worked  auto- 
matically, dispensing  with  calculations  and  indicating  the  range 
by  the  movement  of  a  hand  upon  a  dial.  The  self-acting  gun- 
lock  was  invented  by  him  as  early  as  1S28,  and  shown  to 
the  head  of  the  British  Ordnance  Department,  Sir  Henry 
Yane.  It  was  proposed  to  appoint  a  board  of  officers  to  test 
Ericsson's  gun-lock  in  actual  practice.  As  this  would  disclose 
the  secret  of  the  invention,  and  the  British  Government  re- 
fused to  enter  into  an  agreement  to  pay  for  it  if  the  trial  was 
successful,  the  instrument  was  locked  up  in  a  safe  until  1839. 
Then  it  was  shown  to  Captain  Stockton,  who  was  quick  to  per- 
ceive its  value,  though  most  unwilling  to  accord  to  the  inventor 
proper  credit  for  it. 

In  the  semi-cylinder  engine  of  the  Princeton  Ericsson 
took  especial  piide.  Of  it,  Chas.  B.  Stuart,  Engineer-in-Chief 
of  the  United  States  Xavy,  said,  in  his  work  on  "  The  Xaval 
and  Mail  Steamers  of  the  United  States,"  published  in  1853. 

The  semi-cylinder  engine  of  the  Princetcm  is  unquestionably  the  most 
remarkable  modification  of  the  steam-engine  that  has  ever  been  carried 
into  successful  practice.  A  ^'ibrating  j^iston  of  a  rectangular  form  mov- 
ing in  a  semi-cylinder  is  an  old  mechanical  device.  Mr.  Watt,  in  his 
celebrated  patent,  embraced  this  jiilan  of  transmitting  the  motive  force 
of  steam  to  machineiy.  Since  his  time,  several  engineers  have  at- 
tempted to  build  engines  on  this  plan,  but  without  success.  In  com- 
mon with  Mr.  Watt,  they  have  adopted  the  single  semi-cylinder  with 
packing  against  the  piston-shaft.  Ericsson's  plan  differs  materially  from 
these  various  attempts,  he  having  introduced  double  or  compound  semi- 
cylinders  of  different  diameters  with  double  pistons  placed  in  ojiposite 
directions  on  the  piston-shaft,  both  being  acted  upon  by  the  steam  at 
the  same  time,  their  differential  force  being  the  effective  motive  power 
of  the  engine.  The  combination  of  two  such  double  semi-cylinders, 
arranged  so  as  to  transmit  their  power  in  directions  nearly  rectangular 
to  a  crank-pin  common  to  both,  also  contributes  to  the  complete  suc- 
cess of  this  singular  engine. 

The  device  of  the  blower,  worked  by  a  separate  small  steam- 
engine,  first  introduced,  as  we  have  seen,  in  1831,  in  the  steam- 
packet  Corsa{)\  enabled  Ericsson  to  substitute  for  the  ordinary 
fixed  smoke-stack,  offering  in  action  a  target  for  shot,  a  teles- 


THE  SCREW  IN  WAR  VESSELS.  133 

copic  chimney.  This  could  be  used  when  natural  draught  was 
desired,  and  lowered  when  the  blowers  were  at  work.  His  en- 
gine as  a  whole  was  regarded  by  experts  as  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable features  in  the  vessel,  weighing,  as  it  did,  less  than 
one-half  as  much  as  British  marine  engines  of  equal  power, 
and  occupying  but  one-eiglith  the  space.  The  moving  parts 
were  so  light  that  the  quantity  of  matter  to  be  kept  in  motion 
was  hardly  one-sixth  as  great.  The  compactness  of  Erics- 
son's engine  as  compared  with  the  engines  of  British  naval 
vessels  at  that  time,  is  shown  by  the  two  illustrations  given 
on  the  next  page. 

A  semi-cylinder  engine  had  been  applied  to  the  Stockton  in 
1838,  and  the  model  of  the  engine  for  tlie  Princeton  was 
brought  by  Ericsson  with  him  from  England.  The  link  mo- 
tion applied  to  it  was  that  introduced  by  him  in  1S30  into  his 
locomotives  King  William  and  Queen  Adelaide^  subsequently 
into  the  Stockton,  and  later  on  into  hundreds  of  screw-pi'opeller 
engines.  The  engine  was  first  introduced  on  the  Stockton  and 
patented  in  1839. 

A  committee  of  the  American  Institute  was  appointed  to 
visit  the  Princeton  and  report  upon  this  "  important  experi- 
ment in  steam  navigation.''  They  announced  that  this  vessel 
was  "  in  every  way  worthy  of  the  highest  honors  of  the  Institute 
— a  sublime  conception  most  successfully  realized,  an  effort  of 
genius  skilfully  executed,  a  grand,  unique  combination,  honor- 
able to  the  country  as  creditable  to  all  engaged  upon  her.'' 
The  chairman  of  this  committee  was  Commodore  George  C. 
De  Ivay,  a  gentleman  of  high  reputation  and  large  experience 
in  ship  construction.  The  Secretary  was  Professor  James  J. 
^apes,  Vice-President  of  the  Institute,  and  among  its  members 
was  Professor  James  Ren  wick,  the  physicist.* 

The  sensation  produced  by  the  PHnceton  wherever  she  ap- 
peared is  shown  by  the  description  given  by  two  eye-witnesses, 
John  O.  Sargent  and  Francis  B.  Ogden,  of  a  trial  of  speed  be- 
tween the  naval  vessel  and  the  pioneer  steam-packet  between 
Xew  York  and  Liverpool.     Tlie  occasion  was  the  departure  of 

*  The  other  members  were  J.  S.  Drake,  H.  Meigs.  Adoniram  Chandler, 
Philip  Schuyler,  Geo.  F.  Barnard,  Gordon  J.  Leeds,  and  Thomas  S.  Cum- 
mings. 


Transverse  Section  of  Princeton  and  Front  View  of  En^nes, 


Engines  and  Paddles  of  H.  M.  S.  Achilles.* 


*  The  location  of  tlie  engines  and  the  propeller  of  the  Princeton,  and  the 
engines  and  paddles  of  the  AcJiilles,  with  reference  to  the  water-line  at  A, 
shows  what  a  complete  revolution  Ericsson  effected  in  the  matter  of  protection 
against  shot  and  shell.  His  early  use  of  coal  protection  is  also  shown,  but  not 
the  relative  size  of  the  engines,  as  the  diagrams  are  not  drawn  to  the  same 
scale. 


THE   SCREW   IN   WAR   VESSELS.  135 

the  Great  Western  upon  one  of  her  transatlantic  voyages,  Oc- 
tober 19,  1843.     Describing  the  scene,  Mr.  Sargent  says : 

The  Battery  and  the  piers  were  thronged  with  an  expecting  multi- 
tude. At  her  appointed  hour  the  Great  Western  came  plowing  her  way 
down  the  East  River,  under  circumstances  which  manifested  more  than 
ordinary  effort.  She  was  enveloped  in  clouds  of  steam,  and  of  dense 
black  smoke  ;  her  paddle-wheels  were  revolving  with  unusual  velocity, 
leaving  a  white  wake  behind  her,  that  seemed  to  cover  half  the  river 
with  foam  ;  and  with  her  sails  all  set  she  was  evidently  jjrepared  to  do 
her  best  in  the  anticipated  race.  As  she  passed  the  Battery  she  was 
greeted  with  three  hearty  cheers,  and  a  fair  field  with  no  favor  was  all 
that  she  seemed  to  challenge,  and  the  least  that  all  were  willing  to  allow 
her. 

She  had  left  Castle  Garden  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  behind  her,  when 
a  fine  model  of  a  sailing  ship,  frigate-like,  apj^eared  gliding  gi'acefully 
down  the  North  Eiver,  against  the  tide,  without  a  breath  of  smoke  or  steam 
to  obscure  her  path — with  no  paddle-wheels  or  smoke-pipe  visible — pro- 
pelled by  a  noiseless  and  unseen  agency,  without  a  rag  of  canvas  on  her 
lithe  and  beautiful  spars — but  at  a  speed  which  soon  convinced  the  as- 
sembled thousands  that  she  would  successfully  dispute  the  i^alm  with 
the  gallant  vessel,  celebrated  throughout  the  world,  and  everywhere  ad- 
mitted to  be  the  queen  of  the  seas.  Such  is  the  march  of  improvement 
in  the  arts.  The  newcomer  was  the  United  States  "War  Steamer  Prince- 
ton. The  agent  by  which  she  was  moved  was  Ericsson's  propeller.  She 
soon  reached  and  i^assed  the  Great  Western,  went  round  her,  and  passed 
her  a  second  time  before  they  had  reached  their  point  of  separation.  In 
a  moment,  practical  men  began  to  speak  lightly  of  their  hitherto  favor- 
ite paddle-wheel,  and  the  propeller  that  they  had  shrugged  their  shoul- 
ders at,  and  amused  themselves  with  for  some  years  of  doubtful  experi- 
ment, rose  into  altogether  unexpected  favor."  * 

Of  the  numerous  screw  steamers  planned  by  Ericsson,  the 
Princeton  was  the  only  one  built  under  his  superintendence. 
The  others  were  constructed  from  drawings  made  in  his  office. 
He  was  extremely  particular  about  the  quality  of  both  materi- 
als and  workmanship,  and  his  thoroughness  in  inspection  is 
shown  by  a  story  told  of  him  which  also  illustrates  his  enor- 
mous physical  strength. 

On  one  occasion,  during  the  construction  of  an  engine  at 
Delamater's,  a  certain  casting  appearing  to  him  doubtful  as  to 
soundness,  Ericsson  ordered  it  broken  up.     And,  possibly  sus- 

*  Sargent's  Lecture  on  Steam  Navigation.     New  York,  1844. 


136  LIFE   OF   JOHX   ERICSSON. 

pecting  that  blowholes  might  be  plugged,  or  the  suspected  piece 
made  to  do  duty  in  some  wav,  he  insisted  on  having  it  broken 
on  the  spot.  Some  stalwart  workmen  accordingly  attacked  it 
with  heavy  two-handled  sledges,  but,  failing  to  make  an  im- 
pression, they  desisted  at  length,  saying  :  "  "We  will  put  it  un- 
der the  drop  by  and  by."  His  quick  temper  rose  at  this,  but 
he  spoke  not  a  word  ;  vrith.  his  right  hand  he  snatched  the 
sledge  from  the  nearest  man,  and  in  an  instant  it  whirled  like 
a  meteor  before  the  eyes  of  the  astonished  spectators,  the  pon- 
derous tool  driving  its  head  at  the  first  stroke  through  the 
shell  of  the  dubious  casting,  making  it  a  hopeless  wreck. 
He  tossed  away  the  sledge  as  if  it  had  been  a  jackstraw,  and 
turning  on  his  heel,  strode  awav  with  the  remark  :  *'  Xow  vou 
mar/  put  it  under  the  drop."  * 

So  thorough  was  the  work  upon  the  Princeton  that  after 
serving  through  the  Mexican  "War,  and  doing  more  duty  than 
any  other  naval  vessel,  she  was  sent  to  Europe  without  being 
repaired.  Her  success  was  the  final  triumph  of  the  principle  of 
screw  propulsion.  It  was  most  fortunate  for  Ericsson,  in  his 
contest  with  the  adverse  opinion  of  authority,  that  he  was  able 
to  present  his  new  motor  in  a  remarkably  perfect  condition  at 
the  start.  Yet  his  proposition  to  substitute  the  propeller  for 
the  paddle-wheel  was  received  with  ridicule  by  all  ofiBcialdom. 

■  Government  officers  at  "Washington,  enjoying  a  high  repu- 
tation for  scientific  attainment,  proved,  to  the  satisfaction  of 
themselves  and  their  fellows,  that  the  Princeton  never  could 
attain  a  speed  of  five  miles  an  hour ;  she  was  able  to  make  over 
twelve,  and  this  was  relatively  equal  to  eighteen  or  twenty 
miles  now.  The  most  prominent  of  the  Government  naval 
constructors  assured  his  Department  that  a  mere  glance  at  the 
propeller  intended  for  the  Princeton  was  sufficient  to  convince 
the  practical  eye  of  the  absurdity  of  the  scheme,  "  the  surface 
of  the  blades  was  too  small  for  the  body  to  be  propelled.''  The 
President  of  the  United  States  was  warned  by  Government 
engineei's  that  utter  failure  would  attend  the  attempt  to  use 
engines  constructed  on  such  erroneous  mechanical  principles  as 
those  of  this  vessel.  The  learned  Franklin  Institute  con- 
demned the  vessel,  and  the  builders  of  her  engines  received  in- 
•  Scientific  American,  December  14,  1839. 


THE  SCREW  IN  WAR  VESSELS.  137 

timations  from  the  members  of  the  Institute  that  they  ought 
not  to  be  parties  to  this  waste  of  the  public  money. 

Indeed,  public  opinion  has  been  so  misled  by  statements 
finding  their  way  into  standard  publications,  encyclopedias  and 
the  like,  that  one  who  undertakes  to  set  forth  the  plain  facts 
concerning  Ericsson's  inventions  must  expect  even  now  to  be 
condemned  as  a  partisan.  His  engines,  using  a  half  cylinder 
instead  of  a  whole  cylinder,  have  been  confounded  with  the 
one  patented  by  Watt,  to  which  they  bear  only  the  most  super- 
ficial resemblance.  Ericsson  understood  that  it  was  possible  to 
make  circular  pistons  tighter  than  those  of  his  semi-cylinder 
engines,  and  he  introduced  this  modification  into  engines,  made 
otherwise  on  the  plan  of  his  Princeton  engines,  and  put  into 
the  Daylight  and  the  Penguin. 

•  Keturning  to  the  biography  of  Captain  Stockton,  we  learn 
that  the  construction  of  the  Princeton  "  confuted  the  ignorance 
and  antiquated  dogmas  of  the  "Washington  ISTaval  Bureau.  Her 
speed  and  sailing  qualities,  her  admirable  model,  the  impreg- 
nable security  of  her  motive  power  (being  placed  below  water- 
line),  and  her  powerful  armament  made  her  an  object  of  uni- 
versal admiration.  Wherever  she  appeared  immense  crowds 
gathered  to  witness  her  evolutions  and  inspect  her  machinery. 
She  was  kept  in  continual  service  from  the  time  she  was 
launched  until  the  antipathy  of  the  blundering  incapables  who 
controlled  the  Bureau  of  Construction  at  Washington  directed 
lier  to  be  broken  up.  On  her  visit  to  the  Mediterranean  she 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  curious  and  of  the  skilful  en- 
gineers of  every  naval  power ;  and,  while  the  United  States 
neglected  to  multiply  such  cheap  and  efficient  auxiliaries  of 
naval  defence  after  her  model,  England  and  France  profited  by 
the  experiment,  and  their  navies  are  now  [1856],  crowded  with 
powerful  steamers,  many  of  them  built  on  the  model  and  pos- 
sessing all  the  peculiar  characteristics  of  the  Princeton. ''''  * 

As  soon  as  he  gave  his  attention  to  marine  engineering, 
which  was  shortly  after  his  arrival  in  England  in  1826,  Erics- 
son saw  clearly  that  three  conditions  were  essential  to  the  in- 
troduction of  steam  into  war  vessels  :  first,  the  instrument  of 
propulsion  must  be  beneath  the  water ;  second,  the  machinery 
*  Life  of  Stockton,  p.  81. 


138  LIFE  OF   JOHN    ERICSSON. 

must  also  be  placed  below  the  water-line  to  be  protected  from 
shot,  and  tiually,  the  draught  of  the  furnaces  must  be  made 
independent  of  a  smoke-stack  liable  to  be  shot  away  at  any 
moment.  All  of  these  indispensable  conditions  were  fulfilled 
in  the  PHnceton  and  he  enjoyed  the  gratification  of  finding 
liis  old  antagonists  of  the  British  Admiralty  compelled  to  fol- 
low his  lead. 

When  he  left  England  Ericsson  entrusted  his  interests  to  the 
guardianship  of  Count  Adolph  E.  Yon  Rosen.  In  1843  Count 
Rosen  received  an  order  from  the  French  Governnjent  to  fit 
a  forty-four  gun  frigate,  the  Pomone,  with  a  propeller  on 
Ericsson's  plan,  and  with  engines  of  two  Imndred  and  twenty 
horse-power  to  be  kept  below  the  water-line,  as  in  the  Prince- 
ton. In  ISii  the  English  Government  gave  Count  Rosen 
instructions  to  fit  the  Amjphion  frigate  with  a  propeller  and 
with  engines  of  three  hundred  horse-power.  These  were  also 
to  go  below  the  water-line. 

Aside  from  the  Victory^  fitted  out  by  Ericsson  in  1828, 
•'  these  were  the  first  engines  in  Europe  which  were  kept  below 
the  water-line.  They  were  also  the  first  direct  acting  hori- 
zontal engines  employed  to  give  motion  to  the  screw.  The  air- 
pumps,  which  were  also  horizontal,  were  double-acting,  and 
were  furnished  with  canvas  valves  to  diminish  the  shock  inci- 
dent to  the  shutting  of  large  apparatus  where  so  high  a  speed 
had  to  be  maintained.  Both  vessels  were  completely  success- 
fuh  The  speed  engaged  to  be  given  was  five  knots  an  hour. 
The  speed  of  almost  seven  knots  an  hour  was  actually  at- 
tained." * 

The  designs  for  the  machinery  of  this  first  British  naval 
steamer  carrying  a  propeller  were  made  in  New  York  by  Erics- 
son, lie  had  made  scores  of  plans  before  he  finally  decided 
that  the  application  to  vessels  of  war  of  side  propellers  was  in- 
admissible, because  of  their  exposed  position,  the  difficulty  of 
actuating  them  with  the  propeller  shaft  under  water,  and  the 
additional  power  required  because  of  the  breadth  of  the  beam. 

"  When  the  U.  S.  S.  Princeton,  propelled  hy  Encsson'a 
screw  and  armed  by  Ericsson^ s  wrought-h'on  gun,  was  launched 
the  war  between  armor  and  projectiles  began.  Heretofore  the 
•  Vide  Bourne's  Treatise  on  the  Screw  Propeller,  p.  89. 


THE  SCREW  IN  WAR  VESSELS.  139 

means  of  propulsion  by  steam  had  been  by  machinery  entirely 
above  the  water,  and  exposed  to  an  enemy's  fire :  the  screw  did 
away  with  this  great  drawback,  removing  the  working-beam 
and  paddle ;  compact  engines  in  the  hnll,  giving  motion  to  a 
propeller  protected  in  part  by  the  element  in  which  it  acted. 
The  centre  of  gravity  was  also  lowered,  and,  the  paddle-boxes 
being  removed,  there  was  less  surface  to  armor,  and  less  target 
to  hit. 

"  The  Princeton  was  in  reality  Ericsson's  first  monitor,  giv- 
ing a  warning  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  of  the  changes 
that  were  to  ensue.  Congress  resounded  with  eulogies  of  the 
genius  which  would  enable  us  in  the  near  futui-e  to  defy  the 
navies  of  Europe.  Parliament,  perceiving  the  error  the  ad- 
miralty had  made  in  driving  the  Swedish  inventor  from  Eng- 
land, voted  large  sums  of  money  to  build  trial  propellers  and 
built-up  guns.  The  British  foundries  were  ready  for  the  emer- 
gency ;  stimulated  by  the  success  of  their  first  iron  steamers, 
they  hastened  to  increase  their  plant  so  as  to  include  the  fabri- 
cation of  armor  plates  for  iron  men-of-war.  The  age  of  iron 
had  begun."  * 

*  Development  of  Armor  as  Applied  to  Ships.     By  Lieutenant  Jacob  W. 
Miller,  U.S.N,     Proceedings  U.  S.  Naval  Institute,  No.  10,  1879. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

STOCKTON'S   TREATMENT    OF    ERICSSON. 

Ericsson  Declines  to  be  Held  Responsible  for  tbe  Princeton  Disaster. — 
Anger  of  Stockton. — Payment  for  the  Princeton  Refu.sed. — Corre- 
spondence with  the  Navy  Department. — Application  to  Congress. — 
Testimony  of  Dionysius  Lardner  and  Professor  Mapes. — Legisla- 
tive Injustice. — The  Court  of  Claims  Allows  the  Princeton  Claim. 
— Congress  still  Refuses  to  Pay  it. — Stockton  as  a  Duellist. — Ste- 
vens's Bomb-proof. 

WHEN  the  Peacemaker  exploded  witli  such  fatal  results 
Captain  Stockton  bethought  hunself  of  Ericsson.  If  he 
was  not  disposed  to  share  the  credit  or  success  with  him  he 
was  quite  ready  to  give  him  his  full  measure  of  responsibility 
for  disaster.  It  was  on  the  programme  that  Ericsson  should 
accompany  the  Princeton  when  she  was  ordered  from  New 
York  for  exhibition  to  convince  the  public  officials  at  "Wash- 
ington of  her  value.  lie  proceeded  according!}-  to  the  foot 
of  Wall  Street  at  the  appointed  time,  expecting  to  be  taken 
aboard  there,  but  the  vessel  carrying  his  fortunes,  not  less  than 
those  of  Stockton,  steamed  by  without  stopping  for  him.* 

From  Washington  came  the  echoes  of  the  cannon  celebrat- 
ing the  triumphs  of  the  ambitious  naval  captain,  of  the  speeches 
sounding  his  praises,  and  of  the  clinking  of  the  glasses  in 
which  delighted  visitors  drank  his  health.  There  was  no  music 
in  all  this  for  the  man  who  had  spent  so  many  years  in  devel- 
oping the  ideas  thus  coolly  appropriated.  He  was  in  no  state  of 
mind,  therefore,  to  obey  with  alacrity  the  summons  that  came 
for  him  to  appear  and  assume  the  responsibility  for  the  one  de- 
fective feature  in  the  vessel  and  its  equipment ;  so  he  left  his 

*  I  make  this  statement  upon  the  authority  of  Mr.  Samuel  W.  Taylor, 
for  many  years  the  coufidential  secretary  of  Captain  Ericsson,  from  whom  he 
ohtained  this  information. 


STOCKTON'S   TUEATMENT   OF   ERICSSOI^.  141 

associate  to  his  own  explanations.  His  agency  in  the  success 
of  the  Princeton  had  been,  as  he  believed,  most  ungenerous- 
ly ignored,  and  he  did  not  propose  that  criticism  for  disaster 
should  be  diverted  from  Stockton  to  himself.  Ericsson's  rea- 
sons for  declining  to  respond  to  the  summons  calling  him  to 
Washington  are  given  in  this  letter  : 

Ne-w  Yokk,  Marcli  1,  1844. 

Deak  Sir  :  Your  letter  of  the  2Sth  did  not  reach  me  Tintil  5  o'clock  this 
afternoon.  The  awful  calamity  which  you  relate  was  therefore  known 
to  me  twenty-seven  hours  before  the  receipt  of  your  communication, 
but  for  the  joyful  intelligence  of  Captain  Stockton's  safety  I  am  still  in- 
debted to  you.  Your  request  for  me  to  come  on  immediately,  -whilst  yet 
the  funeral  knell  is  piercing  the  air  of  Washington,  you  can  readily  im- 
agine is  not  very  agreeable. 

How  differently  should  I  have  regarded  an  invitation  from  Captain 
Stockton  a  week  ago  !  I  might  then  have  had  it  in  my  power  to  render 
good  service  and  valuable  counsel.  JVoiyl  canbeof  nouse.  I  must  be  per- 
mitted to  exercise  my  own  judgment  in  this  matter,  and  I  have  to  state 
most  emphatically  that  since  Captain  Stockton  is  in  possession  of  an  ac- 
curate working  plan  of  his  exploded  gun  my  presence  at  Washington 
can  be  of  no  use,  should  an  investigation  of  the  causes  of  the  sad  acci- 
dent be  deemed  necessary. 

The  circumstances  attending  the  loading,  quantity  and  strength  of 
powder,  weight,  nature,  and  fit  of  ball,  etc.,  of  course  /  cannot  inquire 
into.  On  the  other  hand,  any  detailed  information  from  the  forge  as 
to  the  quantity  of  metal  and  the  mode  of  proceeding  with  the  forging 
from  day  to  day,  and  also  a  similar  statement  from  the  Phoenix  Foundiy, 
showing  the  quality  of  the  chips  or  borings  in  every  part  of  the  gun 
I  can  readily  procure  whilst  remaining  here. 

With  the  sincerest  wish  that  Captain  Stockton  may  now  have  suffi- 
ciently recovered  to  bear  with  the  fatigue  of  hearing  you  read  this,  I  am 

Yours  truly, 

J.  Ericsson. 

Wm.  H.  Thompson. 

The  haughty  naval  oflBcer  never  forgave  this  defection,  as  lie 
considered  it,  and  in  his  mind  it  was  ascribed  to  other  motives 
than  those  of  wounded  professional  pride.     "  If  Ericsson  had 

Tiot  been  a coward,"  he  once  said  to  Sargent,  "there  would 

have  been  no  trouble  about  his  getting  his  money  for  the  vessel." 

As  it  was,  Stockton  prevented  the  payment  of  Ericsson's  bill 
irom  the  appropriation  for  the  Princeton ^  and  there  was  no 


142  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

possibility  of  liis  obtaining  remuneration  for  the  two  years  he 
had  devoted  to  the  Government  work,  and  for  the  charges  to 
which  he  had  been  subjected,  except  by  the  tedious  and  uncer- 
tain process  of  an  appeal  to  Congress. 

With  a  bill  made  out  in  due  form,  and  amounting  altogether 
to  $15,080,  Ericsson  sent  this  letter : 

City  of  New  York,  March  14,  1844. 

Sm :  I  have  the  honor  to  transmit  to  you,  annexed,  the  bill  for  my 
sei-vices  as  engineer  in  planning  and  superintending  the  steam  machin- 
ery, armament,  etc.,  of  the  U.  S.  steamer  Princeton^  and  for  certain  in- 
ventions therein  specified. 

I  beg  leave  to  state  that  the  per  diem  charge  of  five  pounds  sterling 
includes  all  my  ofiice,  travelling,  and  other  professional  disbursements, 
and  barely  covers  my  expenses  for  the  time  during  which  I  have  been 
occupied  on  this  important  national  work. 

Of  the  value  of  the  inventions  which  I  have  introduced  in  the  Prince- 
ton, the  results  of  much  previous  labor  and  outlay,  it  does  not  become 
me  to  speak.  On  this  subject  I  can  only  refer  to  the  recent  official  re- 
port of  Captain  Stockton,  and  to  the  report  made  by  the  American  Insti- 
tute of  New  York  at  Cajitain  Stockton's  request,  a  copy  of  which  is  here- 
with enclosed.  In  any  point  of  view,  I  tmst  that  my  professional 
charges  will  be  deemed  reasonable  by  the  Department,  for  it  has  been 
my  intention  to  make  them  so.  When  the  sum  total  of  charges  is  com- 
pared with  the  magnitude  of  the  work  that  has  been  performed,  it  will 
exhibit  a  moderate  compensation  for  services  of  siich  variety  and  extent. 
I  have  the  honor  to  be  your  most  obedient  servant, 

John  Ericsson. 
To  the  Hon.  the  Secketaby  of  the  Navy. 

The  charge  was  for  two  hundred  and  thirty  days  at  five 
pounds  a  day,  and  $5,000  for  services,  specified  as  follows : 

For  services  rendered  in  inventing,  designing,  and  perfecting  the 
following  improvements  connected  with  the  arts  of  naval  warfare  and 
with  steamships  of  war,  and  applied  to  the  U.  S.  steamer  Princeton, 
viz.  : 

The  heating  apparatus,  by  which  a  great  saving  of  fuel  is  efi'ected, 
which  has  never  before  been  attained  ; 

The  new  gun-carriage,  by  which  not  only  the  heaviest  j^ieee  of  ord- 
nance can  be  handled  by  a  few  men,  but  which  so  gradually  checks  the 
recoil  that  the  ship  receives  no  injurious  shock; 

The  sUding  chimney  and  mechanism  by  which  that  great  desidera* 


STOCKTON'S   TREATMENT   OF   ERICSSON.  143 

turn,  the  absence  of  a  projecting  chimney  in  a  ship  of  war,  has  been 
attained;  and 

The  spirit-level,  by  which  the  elevation  of  a  piece  of  ordnance  may 
be  readily  ascertained  with  the  utmost  precision.     .     .     . 

A  replj  came  at  once  from  the  Department  stating  that  the 
account  had  been  received  and  "  referred  to  Captain  Stockton 
for  report."  Twenty-five  days  passed  and  Ericsson  again  wrote 
saying :  "  The  great  length  of  time  which  I  devoted  to  this 
work  compelled  me  to  incur  pecuniary  liabilities  which  render 
it  necessary  for  me  to  solicit  as  early  an  attention  to  my  account 
as  may  be  consistent  with  the  multiplicity  of  business." 

No  reply.  Again  he  wrote,  a  month  later  (May  8,  1844), 
suggesting  that  it  might  be  necessary  for  him  to  apply  to  Con- 
gress, and  asking  such  information  as  would  enable  him  "  to 
judge  of  the  propriety  or  necessity  of  making  such  an  applica- 
tion." This  time  an  answer  came  at  once,  saying  that  the  De- 
partment was  waiting  for  Stockton,  and  the  next  day  this  letter 
was  received : 

Navy  Department,  May  11,  1844, 
Sir:  A  letter  has  this   day  been   received   from   Captain  Stockton 
which  contains  the  following  paragraph  in  relation  to  your  claims  : 

"  In  regard  to  Captain  Ericsson's  bill,  which  was  sent  to  me  at  the 
same  time,  I  must  say  that,  with  all  my  desire  to  serve  him,  I  cannot 
approve  of  his  bill ;  it  is  direct  violation  of  our  agreement  as  far  as  it  is 
to  be  considered  a  legal  claim  upon  the  Department." 

With  such  an  unfavorable  expression  of  opinion,  the  Department 
cannot  allow  your  claim. 

I  am  respectfully  yours, 

J.  Y.  Mason. 
Captain  J.  Ericsson,  New  York. 

Nine  days  after  the  date  of  this  letter  Stockton  sent  this 
communication  to  the  Department : 

Princeton,  May  20,  1844. 

Sir  :  In  answer  to  your  last  communication  of  the  tenth  instant,  on 
the  subject  of  Captain  Ericsson's  account,  a  copy  of  which  had  been  pre- 
viously sent  to  me  by  the  Department,  and  which  I  could  not  approve, 
I  have  the  honor  further  to  state  : 

That  it  has  given  me  great  pleasure  to  acknowledge  on  all  proper 
occasions  the  services  of  Captain  Ericsson's  mechanical  skill  in  carrying 


144  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

ont  Ecy  well-intended  efforts  for  the  benefit  of  the  countrv  and,  although 
I  am  still  free  to  do  so,  vet  my  duty  to  the  Government,  and  not  more 
than  a  proper  regard  for  myself,  require  me  to  say,  that  I  was  quite  sur- 
prised to  learn  that  he  had  presented  any  claim  or  demand  whatever, 
against  the  Department,  for  services  rendered  to  me  in  fitting  the 
Princeton ;  nor  was  my  surprise  at  all  diminished  on  the  penisal  of  his 
accounts  to  find  that  he  had  been  so  extravagant  in  all  his  demands. 

That  the  Government  may  have  a  proper  understanding  of  the  true 
position  of  Captain  Ericsson  toward  the  Government  and  myself  in  re- 
gai'd  to  any  demand  he  has  made  or  may  see  fit  to  make  for  services 
before  alluded  to,  however  eminent  and  laborious  they  may  turn  out  to 
be,  it  seems  to  be  proper  here  to  state  some  of  the  ciicumstances  con- 
nected with  my  first  acquaintance  with  him  and  his  subsequent  visit  to 
the  United  States. 

Previous  to  my  acquaintance  with  Captain  Ericsson  I  had  proposed 
to  the  President  of  the  United  States  and  the  Navy  Department  to  con- 
struct a  steamship-of-war,  whose  machinery  should  be  entirely  out  of 
the  reach  of  shot.  Pui-suing  my  inquiries  on  this  subject  a  few  years 
afterward  in  England,  I  was  informed  by  ATr.  Francis  B.  Ogden,  our 
Consul  at  Liverpool,  that  a  veiy  ingenious  mechanic  by  the  name  of 
Ericsson  had  been  devoting  much  time  and  attention  to  the  matter  of 
submerged  wheels.  He  afterward  introduced  him  to  me  ;  subsequently 
I  had  constructed  in  England,  under  his  immediate  suiJerintendence, 
an  iron  boat  with  submerged  wheels,  and  which  boat  was  afterward  sent 
to  the  United  States.  I  also  had  constructed  under  his  direction  an 
engine  similar  to  the  one  now  on  board  the  Princeton,  which  was  also 
Bent  to  the  United  States. 

Having  obtained  these  two  models,  I  took  my  leave  of  Captain  Erics- 
son, not  knowing  that  I  should  ever  again  see  him,  and  not  supposing 
that  his  personal  services  would  be  ever  requii-ed  or  desired  by  me.  I 
had  the  fullest  confidence  that  all  that  I  wished  could  be  done  quite  as 
well  by  the  mechanics  in  the  United  States  as  by  Captain  Ericsson. 
I  had  no  idea  that  Captain  Ericsson  intended  to  come  to  the  United 
States  until  I  received  a  letter  from  him  announcing  his  arrival  in  New 
York.  I  have  invariably  given  him  to  understand  in  the  most  distinct 
manner,  whenever  the  subject  was  alluded  to,  that  I  have  no  authority 
from  the  Government  to  employ  him,  and  that  if  he  received  anything, 
that  it  must  be  altogether  gi-atuitous  on  the  part  of  the  Government,  that 
considering  the  great  opportunity  he,  as  an  inventor,  would  have  to  in- 
troduce his  patents  to  the  world  by  the  aid  of  the  Government,  I  did  not 
think  it  proper  for  him  to  make  a  charge  for  their  application  to  the 
Princeton,  in  all  of  which  he  has  concurred  as  far  as  I  know,  up  to  the 
time  of  his  presentment  of  his  extraordinary  bill. 

It  appears,  then,  in  the  first  place,  that  Captain  Ericsson  came  to  the 
United  States  without  my  invitation  or  approbation,  and  allow  me  fur- 
ther to  add,  much  to  my  surprise  and  annoyance.    Ha^•ing  thus  thnist 


Stockton's  treatment  of  ericsson.  145 

himself  upon  me,  and  believing  liim  at  that  time  to  be  a  mechanic  of 
some  skill,  I  did  not  employ  him,  but  I  permitted  him,  as  a  particular  act 
of  favor  and  kindness,  to  superintend  the  construction  of  the  machinery 
of  the  Princeton,  on  the  success  of  which  he  had  placed  so  much  of  his 
future  hopes  and  expectations.  Captain  Ericsson  himself  considered,  at 
the  time  he  thus  volunteered  his  services,  that  the  opportunity  aflforded 
him  to  exhibit  to  the  world  the  importance  of  his  various  patents, 
would  be  a  satisfactory  remuneration  for  all  his  services  in  getting  them 
up  on  so  magnificent  a  scale. 

In  giving  you  this  brief  and  general  statement  of  my  views  on  the 
subject  of  your  letter  of  the  10th  inst.,  I  have  endeavored  to  avoid  every- 
thing not  directly  connected  with  the  subject  of  your  inquiry. 
Your  obedient  and  faithful  servant, 

E.  F.  Stockton. 

To  Hon.  John  Y.  Mason,  Secretaiy  of  the  Navy. 

It  thus  appears  that  Captain  Stockton,  after  delaying  a  re- 
port upon  Ericsson's  claim  for  services  as  long  as  he  could, 
finally  took  a  position  concerning  it  which  was  in  flat  contra- 
diction of  his  own  previous  action  and  of  oral  and  written  prom- 
ises to  Ericsson.  The  distinction  between  a  claim  for  patent 
fees  and  one  for  professional  services  is  too  obvious  to  suffer 
them  to  be  for  a  moment  confounded.  Besides,  Stockton  was 
held  by  the  strongest  obligations  that  can  bind  an  honorable 
man  to  urge  upon  the  Government  Ericsson's  title  to  the  re- 
cognition of  his  patent  claims,  for  these  had  been  made  con- 
tingent only  upon  the  success  of  the  Princeton  and  its  complete 
success  was  not  questioned.  Even  were  the  facts  as  stated  they 
would  not  justify  Stockton's  position,  and  if  the  letter  does  not 
actually  misstate  facts  it  does  furnish  an  example  of  the  su^- 
jiresslo  ve7'{,  suggestio falsi. 

"  To  the  Honorable  the  Congress  of  the  United  States," 
"  John  Ericsson,  of  the  City  of  Xew  York,  Civil  Engineer,"  ac- 
cordingly addressed  a  memorial  setting  forth  the  facts,  as  shown 
by  a  series  of  twenty-six  letters  and  documents  accompanying 
the  petition,  and  saying  in  this  temperate  language :  "  It  is 
suggested  by  Captain  Stockton  that  your  memorialist  has  no 
'  legal  claim  '  upon  the  Department.  By  this  expression  Cap- 
tain Stockton  does  not  intend  to  deny  that  the  services  al- 
leged have  been  rendered — that  the  work  for  which  your  me- 
morialist claims  compensation  has  been  done  by  him  and  M-ell 
10 


146  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

done — nor  that  the  United  States  are  in  the  present  enjoy, 
ment  of  the  unpaid  results  of  youi-  memorialist's  labor  and 
invention.  ...  A  claim  founded  on  such  considerations 
and  so  verified,  your  memorialist  cannot  well  distinguish  from 
a  'legal  claim.' " 

Ericsson  then  quotes  the  letters  which  passed  between  him 
and  Stockton  in  July,  1841,  with  reference  to  his  leaving  the 
matter  of  payment  for  his  patent  rights  to  the  Government,  and 
continues  :  ''  This  your  memorialist  presumes  to  be  the  agree- 
ment which  Captain  Stockton  alleges  to  be  directly  '  violated ' 
by  the  account  which  your  memorialist  has  submitted  to  the 
Department.  It  is  true  that  your  memorialist  consented  thus 
to  leave  the  amount  of  his  patent  fees  to  what  Captain  Stock- 
ton should  '  recommend,'  or  the  Government  should  see  fit  to 
pay.  Six  months  have  elapsed  since  the  ship  was  tried.  Four 
months  have  elapsed  since  Captain  Stockton  reported  to  your 
honorable  body  that  the  Princeton  can  make  greater  speed 
than  any  sea-going  steamer  or  other  vessel  heretofore  built,  and 
expressed  his  belief  that  she  would  prove  'invincible'  against 
any  foe.  Meanwhile  the  Government  lias  not  seen  fit  to  pay 
your  memorialist  anything  for  his  patent  rights.  Meanwhile 
Captain  Stockton  has  not  been  pleased  to  recommend  that  any- 
thing should  be  paid  to  your  memorialist  for  his  patent  rights. 
And  when  your  memorialist  calls  upon  the  Department — not 
for  the  patent  fees  in  question — but  for  the  bare  repayment  of 
his  expenditures  and  compensation  for  his  time  and  labor  in 
the  service  of  the  United  States — still  leaving  his  patent 
charges  to  their  own  voluntary  action — he  is  told  that  the 
'  Government  cannot  allow  his  claim,'  and  the  presentation  of 
his  bill,  '  if  it  is  to  be  considered  a  legal  claim  upon  the  De- 
partment,' '  violates  an  agreement.' 

"  This  agreement,  it  is  obvious,  had  reference  only  to  the 
patent  rights  in  question  and  not  to  the  services  of  your  me- 
morialist as  engineer,  his  expenses  in  that  capacity,  nor  to  his 
compensation  for  the  numerous  inventions  and  improvements 
unconnected  with  the  engine  and  propeller  which  were  subse- 
quently introduced  in  the  Princeton.  Your  memorialist  never 
contemplated  that  these  services  should  be  gratuitously  rendered, 
and  it  would  require  certainly  a  very  clear  and  unequivocal  ex- 


STOCKTON'S   TREATMENT   OF  ERICSSON.  147 

pression  of  such  an  intent  on  his  part  to  lead  any  one  to  a  con- 
clusion so  extraordinary. 

"  Under  these  circumstances  your  raemorialibt  is  compelled 
to  apply  to  your  honorable  body  for  relief,  and  would  respect- 
fully solicit  the  attention  of  your  honorable  body  to  the  veri- 
fied accounts  he  has  the  honor  to  transmit  to  them.  The  ad- 
vances vehich  your  memorialist  has  made  on  account  of  the 
United  States  and  the  great  length  of  time  during  which  he 
was  devoted  to  this  work  without  compensation  have  exhausted 
his  resources,  and  the  refusal  of  the  Department  to  entertain 
his  claim  leaves  him  no  recourse  but  that  of  making  a  direct  ap- 
peal to  the  representatives  of  the  American  people. 
"  All  of  which  is  most  respectfully  submitted  by 
"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"  John  Ericsson." 

The  documents  accompanying  this  memorial  were  the  of- 
ficial orders  directing  Stockton  to  build  the  Princeton.,  a  series 
of  letters  from  Stockton  calling  upon  Ericsson  for  the  plans, 
designs,  superintendence,  travelling,  etc.,  charged  for  in  his 
bill,  and  afiidavits  from  Professor  Dionysius  Lardner,  Pro- 
fessor James  J.  Mapes,  and  Robert  Schuyler,  setting  forth  that 
the  charge  of  £5  per  day  was  not  only  moderate  but  far  less  than 
such  exceptional  professional  services  might  properly  command. 
There  were  also  letters  and  contracts  showing  that  the  speci- 
fications called  for  "  a  semi-rotary  engine  on  Ericsson's  patent 
principle "  and  for  his  propeller,  and  that  the  work  upon  the 
equipment  of  the  vessel  was  done  from  his  designs  and  under 
his  superintendence.  The  sequence  and  order  of  these  letters, 
together  with  their  text,  shows  that  while  Stockton  stood  be-i 
fore  the  Department  as  sponsor  for  the  Princeton  he  was  de- 
pendent for  every  detail  of  its  equipment  upon  Ericsson's  skill 
and  experience.  Yet  in  his  official  report  upon  the  completion 
of  the  vessel  Ericsson's  name  does  not  appear,  nor  is  there  any 
allusion  to  him  in  the  message  of  President  Tyler  to  Congress 
transmitting  this  report,  February  12,  1841. 

"  Of  this,"  wrote  Mr.  Sargent  at  the  time  to  Senator  More- 
head,  "  Captain  Ericsson  does  not  complain.  But  not  satisfied 
with  deriving  all  the  credit.,  Captain  Stockton  is  altogether  in- 


148  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

active  in  procuring  Captain  Ericsson  compensation  for  his  ser 
vices.  Whether  or  no  this  arises  from  a  desire  to  keep  Erics- 
son altogether  out  of  view,  and  tlien  munopolize  all  the  credit 
you  can  judge  as  well  as  I.  Stockton  has  taken  all  the  glory. 
In  his  report  he  even  speaks  of  '  submerged  wheels,'  to  avoid 
an  allusion  to  '  Ericsson's  propeller,'  and  besides  all  this 
suffers  Ericsson  to  go  without  remuneration  for  his  laboiious, 
valuable,  and  unremitted  services  for  two  years.  Ericsson 
was  the  author  and  maker  of  the  whole  thing,  that  is  to  say 
everything  about  her  in  which  she  differs  from  others.  Bills 
for  constructing  for  the  United  States  the  most  formidable 
ship  of  war  that  floats  the  seas,  and  that  has  excited  the  wonder 
and  admiration  of  so  many  thousands  of  our  citizens,  sleep  on 
the  table  of  the  Secretary  unjjaid.  His  lettei'S  on  the  subject 
remain  unanswered.  Is  not  this  disgraceful  to  the  navy?" 
The  Kaval  Committee  of  the  House  of  Representatives  unani- 
mously reported  a  bill  to  pay  Ericsson  $15,080,  but  it  was 
defeated  by  a  narrow  majority.  In  1S4S,  a  similar  bill  was  de- 
feated by  an  unfavorable  report  from  the  Senate  Naval  Com- 
mittee. 

For  eight  years  nothing  further  was  done  in  Congress. 
Meantime,  the  Act  of  February  24,  1855,  established  a  Court 
of  Claims  to  adjudicate  upon  questions  in  dispute  between 
the  Government  and  individuals,  reserving  to  Congress  the 
right  to  approve  or  disapprove  the  decisions  of  the  Court. 
On  March  26,  1856,  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  ordered 
Ericsson's  papers  to  be  referred  to  the  Court  of  Claims.  The 
Court  united  in  a  decision  granting  him  $13,930,  and  refer- 
ring this  award  to  Congress  in  the  usual  form  for  approval. 
This  was  the  amount  of  his  bill  for  $15,080 — less  $1,150  he  liad 
received,  including  the  thousand  dollars  referred  to  in  his  cor- 
respondence with  Stockton.  Ten  days  after  this  judgment  the 
Senate  committee  reported  a  bill  providing  for  the  payment  of 
this  net  sum.  In  the  United  States  Senate  on  May  14,  1858, 
an  earnest  speech  in  support  of  the  claim  was  made  by  the 
Hon.  Stephen  R.  Mallory,  representative  from  Florida,  whose 
experience  as  Chairman  of  the  Xaval  Conmiittee  had  made  him 
familiar  with  the  value  of  EricssoTi's  services.  "  There  was  no 
experiment  in  the  Princeton^^  Mr.  Mallory  said.     "  The  exper- 


Stockton's  treatment  of  ericsson.  149 

iment  had  been  made  at  great  cost  by  Captain  Ericsson.  He 
had  exhausted  every  dollar  he  had  on  earth  in  making  the  ex- 
periment. .  .  .  The  Princeton  is  the  foundation  of  our 
present  steam  marine.  It  is  the  foundation  of  the  steam  ma- 
rine of  the  whole  world.  .  ,  .  The  qualities  which  the 
Princeton  had  we  have  translated  into  other  vessels,  but  we 
have  never  excelled  her.  .  .  .  If  he  had  volunteered  his 
services,  I  ask,  when  the  country  has  reaped  these  great  advan- 
tages by  them,  is  it  just,  is  it  generous,  is  it  magnanimous  in  the 
American  people  to  refuse  him  this  paltry  compensation  ?  A 
letter  from  Stockton,  written  in  1853,  was  interpreted  by  the 
Court  of  Claims  as  showing  that  he  merely  held  that  there  was 
no  legal  contract  and  not  that  no  service  was  rendered.  The 
Court  of  Claims  did  not  accept  Stockton's  view  of  the  case  and 
finding  in  his  letters,  as  well  as  elsewhere,  proof  that  payment 
of  some  sort  for  service  was  expected,  granted  Ericsson  the 
amount  asked  for." 

There  the  matter  has  rested  from  that  time  to  this.  Con- 
gress neglected  to  appropriate  the  money,  and  the  bill  for 
Ericsson's  relief,  like  so  many  other  meritorious  measures, 
after  running  the  usual  course,  disappeared  in  the  sandy  wastes 
of  legislative  talk.  The  decisions  of  the  Court  of  Claims  ad- 
verse to  the  claimants  against  the  Government  were  concurred 
in  at  that  time  without  examination.  The  decisions  in  their 
favor  were  sent  to  a  committee,  where,  in  the  language  of  one 
of  its  members,  you  needed  "  law,  equity,  evidence,  and  inspii-a- 
tion  to  get  anything." 

The  justice  of  his  demand  being  recognized,  and  the  Court 
of  Claims  having  reported  in  its  favor,  Ericsson  had  every 
reason  to  believe  that  his  money  would  soon  be  received. 
Thus  he  was  tempted  to  give  to  the  collection  of  his  "  claim  " 
time  which  he  might  liave  devoted  to  more  profitable  pursuits, 
and  was  kept  for  years  in  a  constant  state  of  irritation  and 
anxiety.  The  chief  theme  of  his  discourse  with  his  friend  Sar- 
gent, in  a  long  series  of  letters,  extending  over  a  number  of 
years,  was  the  injustice  of  Congress,  and  his  favoi-able  opinion 
of  American  methods  did  not  grow  apace.  At  the  conclusion 
of  a  long  letter  on  this  subject,  he  -writes  :  "  I  will  saj'  no  more  ; 
the  gross  injustice  in  the  whole  matter  makes  me  nervous,  far 


150  LIFE   OF   JOHN  ERICSSON. 

more  than  if  doomed  to  decapitation  in  twenty-four  hours." 
He  was  constantly  harassed  for  money  at  this  time,  and  sub- 
jected to  endless  embarrassment  and  humiliation.  For  this  the 
law  afforded  no  possible  redress  against  the  Sovereign  Con- 
gress. The  Xavy  Department  did  finally,  in  1S4S,  allow  him 
two  thousand  dollars  for  the  use  of  his  patented  engine  but  his 
bill  for  two  years'  services  devoted  to  the  construction  of  the 
Princeton  still  stands  as  an  unpaid  judgment  against  the 
Government. 

If  an  ''  ingenious  mechanic "  had  rendered  service  under 
like  circumstances  to  an  architect  employed  to  build  a  house, 
can  there  be  any  doubt  that  he  would  not  only  have  had  a  legal 
claim  against  the  owner  of  the  house  but  a  lien  upon  the  prop- 
erty as  well  ?  A  claim  that  is  legal  as  against  an  individual 
is  not  under  our  system  enforceable  against  the  Government ; 
that  is  all.  Judge  Story,  in  his  ''  Commentaries  on  the  Consti- 
tution," points  out  the  serious  defect  of  both  Federal  and  State 
constitutions  in  failing  to  provide  any  means  of  enforcing  a 
just  claim  against  the  State,  such  as  exists  in  England  under 
what  is  called  a  petition  of  right  to  the  Court  of  Chancery. 
"  Cases  of  the  most  cruel  hardship  and  intolerable  delay,  have,'' 
said  Judge  Story,  "  already  occurred,  in  which  meritorious  cred- 
itors have  been  reduced  to  grievous  suffering,  and  sometimes 
to  absolute  ruin,  by  tardiness  of  a  justice  which  has  been 
yielded  only  after  the  humble  supplication  of  many  years  be- 
fore the  legislature." 

Such  is  Ericsson's  case,  and  in  this  instance  the  United 
States  has  availed  itself  without  compensation  of  the  experience 
acquired  at  great  cost  by  a  private  individual,  and  has  con- 
tinued to  make  use,  from  that  day  to  this,  of  ideas  undoubtedly 
originated  and  first  applied  by  him,  without  payment  for  the 
service  rendered.  If  this  does  not  violate  the  letter  it  cer- 
tainly does  offend  the  spirit  of  the  constitutional  requirement 
that  private  property  shall  not  be  taken  for  public  use  without 
just  compensation ;  for  property,  as  the  United  States  Su- 
preme Court  has  said,  "  is  a  word  of  large  import." 

In  1S66  a  competent  engineering  authority  declared  that  no 
screw  propeller  engine  "  has  since  been  constructed  to  go  below 
the  water-line  which  surpasses  that  of  the  Princeton  in  trust- 


Stockton's  treatment  of  eeicsson.  151 

worthiness,  durability,  strength,  lightness,  and  mechanical  ex- 
cellence of  performance.  It  was  simpler  and  had  fewer  parts 
than  any  propeller  engine  ever  put  into  a  war  steamer."  Erics- 
son was  the  pioneer  in  applying  power  directly  to  the  shaft 
turning  the  screw,  so  as  to  get  rid  of  the  complication  of  belts 
or  gearing,  and  the  engine  of  the  Princeton  was  the  first  ex- 
ample of  this  type.  It  marked  a  new  departure,  and  was  at 
the  time  openly  and  unsparingly  ridiculed  by  all  the  experts 
who  examined  it.  In  spite  of  them  and  their  wisdom  it  did 
its  work  so  perfectly  and  accurately  that  it  wore  out  one  hull, 
and  another  was  built  expressly  for  it. 

Whatever  feeling  Ericsson  may  have  had  toward  Captain 
Stockton,  it  did  not  survive  the  occasion.  In  his  Contribu- 
tions to  the  Centennial  Exhibition,  1S76,  he  gives  some  account 
of  his  transactions  with  him  (Chapter  XXYI.)  making  no  allu- 
sion to  the  differences  between  them,  and  speaking  of  him  as 
"  that  enterprising  and  spirited  officer."  Ericsson's  published 
references  to  Stockton  were  all  dignified  and  free  from  passion, 
though  in  one  of  his  private  letters,  written  in  1844  when  he  was 
smarting  under  the  sense  of  recent  injustice,  he  does  speak  of 
"  the  deep  rascality  of  that  letter  of  Stockton's."  In  another 
private  letter,  also  written  at  that  time,  he  said :  "  Give  Stock- 
ton time  and  he  will  produce  certificates  that  gun,  carriages, 
heaters,  engines,  and  propeller  of  the  Princeton  are  all  failures. 
Ten  to  one  he  will  make  me  out  to  be  the  Government's  debtor 
— only  give  him  time."  Francis  B.  Ogden,  who  had  a  pro- 
prietary interest  in  the  propeller,  shared  its  inventor's  opinion 
as  to  the  hostility  of  Captain  Stockton.  Writing  concerning 
some  of  Ericsson's  difficulties,  he  said  (in  a  letter  dated  June 
25,  1849) : 

I  enter  feelingly  into  your  disgust  at  the  unfair  decision  of  juries  and 
judges  ;  but,  my  dear  friend,  you  have  a  recuperative  hundred  horse- 
power in  your  favor  in  youi'  own  inexhaustible  resources.  Write  me 
immediately  and  more  frequently — tell  me  what  you  are  doing— where 
is  Stockton  and  what  is  he  about — has  he  influence  with  the  present  ad- 
ministration ?  If  he  has  I  need  not  ask  how  he  employs  it.  I  have  it 
from  the  best  authority  that  he  has  sworn  to  ruin  me — as  well  as  your- 
self. I  should  like  to  have  him  within  ten  paces,  with  all  his  boasted 
chivaliy  and  devil-may-care  deeds.     What  is  Kobert  Stevens  doing  ?    Will 


152  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

his  shot-proof  frigate  ever  be  afloat,  or  his  thirty  mile  steamers  ever  as< 
tonish  the  world  ? 

The  "  ten  paces  •'  has  reference  to  Stockton's  early  reputa- 
tion as  a  duellist.  At  one  time,  when  feeling  between  British 
and  American  officers  ran  high,  just  after  the  "^Var  of  1812, 
Stockton  accepted  challenges  to  fight  all  the  captains  of  the 
British  regiment  then  garrisoning  Gibraltar.  Several  meetings 
took  place  and  Stockton  had  a  most  adventurous  escape  from 
arrest  after  wounding  his  adversary  in  one  of  them. 

How  deeply  Ogden  was  interested  in  his  partner's  success  is 
shown  by  these  extracts  from  letters  written  by  him  to  Erics- 
son from  Liverpool. 

February  3,  1842.  As  soon  as  any  money  comes  in  that  yon  can 
spare  do  let  me  for  God's  sake  have  a  little  for  old  scores,  for  I  do  as- 
sure you  I  am  still  devilish  poor,  although  Stockton's  acceptance  has 
kept  me  afloat  for  the  present,  and  I  hope  for  better  times  some  day 
hereafter. 

FebruaiylS,  1812.  I  am  delighted  with  your  satisfaction  at  the  com- 
ing in  of  the  works  of  the  frigate,  and  with  the  rapid  progress  you  are 
making;  and  1  do  not  allow  myself  to  jiut  in  a  hypothetical  ifa.s  to  the 
success  of  the  iron  boats.  [These  were  the  four  canal  barges  ordered  by 
Stockton.]  1  look  ujjon  that  as  settled.  Had  Stockton  come  forward 
three  years  ago,  as  he  ought  to  have  done,  his  jiroperty  would  have  been 
at  this  day  worth  t^nce  what  it  is ;  never  too  late,  however. 

Liverpool,  April  3,  1812.  Count  Von  Rosen  has  had  two  interviews 
with  the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty,  and  seems  to  think  that  they  favored 
the  idea  of  giving  your  proi^eller  a  trial.  I  have  written  to  President 
Houston,  of  Texas,  urging  him  to  let  me  build  him  an  iron  ship,  fitted 
with  Ericsson's  jiropellers  and  armed  with  Paixhan  guns." 

May  20,  1812.  My  chief,  nay  for  a  time  to  come  my  only  depend- 
ence is  in  your  success,  and  as  I  embarked  with  you  heart  and  soul,  and 
liave  never  for  one  instant  faltered,  but  have  stuck  by  you  in  good  re- 
port and  evil,  and  as  far  as  it  was  in  my  power  have  assisted  you  and  pro- 
moted your  views,  I  feel  quite  certain  of  all  your  exertions  in  my  favor. 
My  head  is  yet  above  water,  but  I  tell  you  in  sincerity  that  I  have  not 
money  to  go  to  market  with.  I  have  jiroperty  here  worth  four  times  as 
much  as  it  would  now  sell  for.  I  have  debts  (good  in  time)  due  from 
the  United  States  to  the  amount  of  815,000,  from  which  I  cannot  now 
realize  a  shilling. 

Your  arrangement  with  the  Lake  people  I  approve  highly  of,  for  in 
the  first  instance,  a  peppercorn  is  of  more  importance  than  any  sum  that 
might  be  recovered  or  rather  jeopardized  by  the  vmcertainty  of  the  law. 


STOCKTON'S   TREATMENT   OF   ERICSSON.  153 

I  am  rejoiced  at  the  prospect  your  iron  boats  vrill  open,  and  indeed  I 
look  upon  the  thing  as  fairly  before  the  public,  sink  or  swim,  accord- 
ing to  its  own  merits.  Of  the  result  I  have  not  the  least  doubt.  Such 
is  Robert  Stevens's  standing  that  it  will  not  be  advisable  to  come  out 
against  his  plan  imtil  you  are  in  successful  operation — then  plunge  a 
2J:0-pound  shot  into  his  citadel,  and  don't  take  it  for  granted  because  he 
says  so  that  his  "  Pa  "  was  the  inventor  of  the  proijeller.  Bring  him  down 
to  particulars  and  you  will  find  it  to  have  been  quite  a  diflferent  thing. 
Should  he  attempt  to  introduce  it  into  his  iron  bomb-proof,  make  no  stir 
about  it  until  the  thing  is  complete,  and  Congress  has  acted  upon  your 
claim.     Then  you  will  have  ground  to  go  upon. 

June  3,  18-42.  Since  the  fate  of  the  Clarion,  no  sea-steamer,  I 
suppose,  will  be  started  until  the  Prmceto7i  sets  the  question  at  rest, 
which  I  trust  it  will  do  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  the  world  except  Robert 
Stevens,  who  of  course  will  be  an  unbeliever  until  he  can  establish  his 
claim  to  it  in  the  name  of  his  '  Pa,'  who  tried  eveiything  and  succeeded 
in  nothing.  The  Marquis  of  Worcester  was  a  fool  to  him  with  his  "  Cen- 
to "  ;  Stevens  was  a  MilUo. 


These  familiar  letters  show  the  relations  existing  between 
the  two  men  to  whom  we  are  chiefly  indebted  for  the  steam 
propeller — to  Ericsson  because  of  the  engineering  ability  and 
persevering  energy  devoted  to  the  solution  of  a  problem  so 
long  baffling  mechanics — to  Ogden  because  of  the  sound  nauti- 
cal judgment  and  personal  influence  which  contributed  to  its 
early  introduction.  The  Clarion  of  the  Havana  line,  alluded 
to  here,  was  the  first  ocean  steamer  fitted  with  the  propeller. 
Stevens's  "  bomb-proof  "  was  the  iron-clad  vessel  begun  by 
Eobert  L.  Stevens  at  Iloboken,  in  1843,  carried  on  during  his 
lifetime  at  heavy  expense,  and  continued  after  his  death  by 
General  Geoi-ge  B.  McClellan,  Stevens  having  left  a  million 
dollars  for  this  purpose  in  his  will.  It  was  never  completed, 
and  was  finally  sold  for  old  iron  and  broken  up.  Stevens's  bat- 
tery as  well  as  the  Princeton  originated  in  the  Oregon  boun- 
dary troubles  of  President  Tyler's  administration  and  the 
"  fifty -four  forty  or  fight "  sentiment  of  that  day,  which  de- 
manded that  the  boundary  line  between  the  United  States  and 
the  British  possessions  should  extend  to  latitude  54*^  -iO'  N. 

In  1842,  April  14,  an  act  of  Congress  was  passed  authoriz- 
ing a  contract  with  Mr.  Stevens  for  an  iron-clad  steam  vessel, 
a  joint  commission  of  army  and  navy  officers  having  decided,  af- 


154  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

ter  experiments  at  Sandy  Hook,  that  four  and  a  half  inches  of 
armor  were  proof  against  existing  ordnance.  Similar  experi- 
ments in  England  led  to  similar  conclusions.  Before  Stevens's 
vessel  was  begun  Ericsson  and  Stockton  had  shown  that  this 
thickness  of  armor  could  be  easily  pierced,  and  the  contract 
with  Stevens  was  changed  accordingly.* 

In  this  and  in  other  ways  Ericsson  and  the  Stevens  an- 
tagonized, for  among  the  numerous  claimants  for  the  screw 
was  John  Stevens,  who  experimented  with  it  in  1804.  Og- 
den's  letters  quoted  here  appear  to  be  the  echo  of  Ericsson's 
own  sentiments  concerning  Stevens.  Ericsson's  antagonisms 
were,  however,  directed  against  acts  rather  than  individuals, 
as  even  his  friends  sometimes  discovered  to  their  cost.  He 
was  too  large-minded  to  indulge  in  antipathies  merely  personal. 
Confident  in  his  own  abilities  he  asked  only  for  a  fair  field 
and  no  favor,  and  his  feelings  of  hostility  never  survived  their 
occasion,  as  was  shown  in  still  another  instance  when  he  re- 
buked with  dignity  a  correspondent  who  assumed  upon  his  sup- 
posed hostility  to  his  Rainhill  antagonist,  George  Stephenson,  to 
speak  slightingly  of  him.  It  was  not  his  habit  to  speak  ill  of 
others  and  he  was  always  ready  to  rebuke  those  who  imagined 
that  they  could  turn  what  they  assumed  to  be  his  liostilities 
to  their  personal  account.  Favors  done  him  were  written  on 
adamant;  injuries  were  inscribed  upon  the  waters.  "When  he 
had  acquired  wealth  some  one  sought  to  annoy  him  by  writing 
from  abroad,  that  a  movement  was  on  foot  to  erect  a  monu- 
ment to  one  of  the  numerous  claimants  to  the  invention  of  the 
screw.  Ericsson's  response  was  a  check  for  five  hundred  dol- 
lars as  a  contribution  to  the  monument. 

*  See  American  Crclopedia  of  Biography,  article  R.  L.  Stevens. 


CHAPTER   X. 

SUCCESSES  AND  FAILURES. 

General  Introduction  of  the  Screw. — Adopted  for  the  British  Navy. — 
First  Use  of  Twin  Screws. — Ericsson's  Business  Methods  and  Fi- 
nances.— Auxiliary  Steam  Vessels. — Their  Use  During  the  War  with 
Mexico. — The  Massachusetts  General  Scott's  Flag-ship. — The  Prince- 
ton Claim  Again. — Failure  of  the  Iron  Witch. — Business  Associa- 
tions with  R.  B.  Forbes. — Ericsson's  Work  for  the  Government. — 
Competitive  Trial  of  Screw-vessels. — Rival  Claims  to  the  Invention 
of  the  Screw. — Contests  in  the  Courts. 

EmCSSON'S  occupation  with  the  Princeton  continued  for 
two  years,  from  September,  1841,  to  September,  1843. 
Daring  this  period,  as  already  stated,  twenty -five  vessels  trading 
in  American  waters  received  the  screw,  besides  the  original  im- 
ported tug  Robert  F.  Stockton.  By  tlie  end  of  1843  the  list  of 
screw  vessels  afloat  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  had  extended 
to  forty-two.  They  are  enumerated  and  described  in  the  report 
of  the  Swedish  Lieutenant  Johnson  referred  to  on  page  110. 
Speaking  of  this  report,  an  English  authority  says : 

The  fate  of  mechanical  inventions  is  much  like  that  of  the  seed  in 
the  parable.  The  invention  must  fall  on  a  proper  soil  and  be  nurtured 
by  favorable  circumstances  of  time  and  place,  in  order  to  bloom  into 
success.  The  application  of  the  steam-engine  to  navigation  was  of 
greater  necessity  to  the  large  extent  of  the  rivers  and  lakes  of  the  Unit- 
ed States  than  with  ourselves  ;  and  Fulton  did  right  to  take  his  marine 
engine  back  to  his  own  country.  For  similar  reasons  the  screw  pro- 
peller worked  its  way  into  use  there  much  quicker  than  with  ourselves. 
It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  Ericsson  applied  his  propeller  to  upward  of 
sixty  vessels  in  America  before  any  other  form  of  propeller  was  adopted, 
nor  is  it  less  worthy  of  remark  that  the  adoption  of  his  propeller  proved 
a  great  commercial  success  from  the  start,  many  of  the  original  vessels 
being  now,  after  fifteen  years  of  service,  in  good  working  condition.* 

*  The  London  Engineer,  May  11,  1866. 


156  LIFE  OF   JOHN  ERICSSON. 

The  machinery  of  these  early  vessels  was  built  in  Xew 
York,  Philadelphia,  and  Oswego. 

Daring  the  two  years  principally  devoted  to  the  Princeton 
time  was  found  for  other  work.  June  24, 1843,  engines  upon  a 
new  principle  were  experimentally  tested  in  a  canal  barge  called 
the  Black  Diamond^  and  the  next  year  a  model  was  deposited 
in  the  Patent  Office,  June  8,  1844,  and  a  patent  applied  for 
June  24th.  October  6, 1843,  Rufus  K.  Page,  of  Ilallowell,  Me., 
was  given  the  right  for  eighteen  mouths  to  negotiate  "  on  joint 
account "  with  "  any  prince,  power  or  sovereignty,"  except 
France,  for  applying  Ericsson's  propeller  and  engines  to  ves- 
sels on  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Black  Sea.  In  1842  back 
action  engines  were  planned,  and  in  1843  they  were  applied  to 
the  Ilevenue  cutter  Legare,  and  afterward  to  II.  M.  S.  Am- 
2')hion^  the  first  British  war  vessel  fitted  with  the  Ericsson  pro- 
peller. They  are  described  as  "  a  species  of  steeple-engine  laid 
upon  its  side."'  The  steeple-engine  is  one  familiar  to  travellers 
on  American  rivers.  The  guides  to  the  connecting-rod  rise 
vertically  along  the  crank-shaft,  and  require  for  their  accom- 
modation the  high  frame  rising  above  the  deck  like  the  steeple 
of  a  country  church. 

In  1843,  too,  twin  screw  engines  were  applied  to  the  steam- 
ship ^arrnora^  these  consisting  of  two  independent  beam  en- 
gines placed  transversely  in  the  ship,  the  beams  operating  close 
under  the  deck.  This  was  the  first  practical  application  of  the 
twin  screw  system.  Single  cylinder  screw  engines  were  also  ap- 
plied in  a  peculiar  manner  to  numerous  freight  vessels  on  the 
canals  and  rivers  of  tlie  United  States,  to  adapt  them  to  the  ne- 
cessities of  navigation  in  shallow  waters.  The  piston-rod  and 
driving-crank  were  so  connected  bv  coir- wheels  as  to  move  in 
opposite  directions  through  equal  arcs  in  equal  times. 

Soon  after  his  arrival  in  Xew  York  Ericsson  opened  an  ac- 
count in  the  bank  of  "  Manhattan  Company,"  a  corporation 
chartered  in  1799  under  the  pretence  of  introducing  water  into 
Xew  York,  and  owing  its  existence  to  a  scheme  of  Aaron  Burr's 
for  neutralizing  the  influence  in  Xew  York  City  of  Hamilton 
and  the  Federalists.  "With  this  ancient  and  substantial  institu- 
tion Ericsson  continued  to  bank  imtil  his  death.  In  his  series 
of   check-books   are  found   the   only  accounts   he   ever  kept, 


SUCCESSES   AND   FAILURES.  157 

for,  whatever  his  accomplishments,  book-keeping  is  not  to  be 
inchided  among  them.  Departing  from  the  strictly  legitimate 
uses  of  the  check-book,  he  filled  his  up  with  memoranda  of 
various  sorts — most  useful  for  biography,  if  somewhat  disturb- 
ing to  the  cashier's  idea  of  the  fitness  of  things.  Here  is  to  be 
found  the  only  consecutive  account  that  has  been  preserved  of 
Ericsson's  transactions  from  day  to  day,  and  from  year  to  year. 
His  check-books  tell  in  their  way  the  story  of  their  owner's 
personal  peculiarities,  and  with  mute  eloquence  testify  to  his 
generosity,  his  kindness  of  heart,  his  strict  integrity,  and, 
most  of  all,  to  his  overmastering  disposition  to  spend  his  money 
upon  his  ideas  rather  than  upon  himself.  There  was  for  him 
no  resting-place  of  ease,  of  Sybaritic  enjoyment,  or  even  of  per- 
sonal comfort,  as  most  men  regard  comfort.  Always  just  be- 
yond lay  the  goal  of  higher  attainment. 

The  account  in  these  check-books  begins  with  July,  1844, 
and  one  or  two  of  the  books  before  1844  have  disappeared.  The 
sum  to  Ericsson's  credit  at  this  time  was  $5,361.16,  and  the 
deposits  during  the  previous  six  months  had  amounted  to  $21,- 
423.33.  For  six  weeks  from  July  1  there  were  no  deposits : 
then  on  August  15,  1844,  $3,700  went  into  the  bank,  and 
the  next  day  $3,500  more.  Meantime  checks  had  been  drawn 
for  these  items : 

Payments  on  account  of  macliineiy  contracted .     $2,897  14 

For  patent  exiienses  on  the  propeller 316  93 

Salaries  of  office  assistants 80  00 

Kent  for  one  month 128  00 

Marble  bust  from  H.  Kneeland  (on  account)..  70  00 

For  "  Duck  "  (Mrs.  Ericsson) 150  00 

For  personal  expenses 150  00 

Total $3,792  07 

Substantially  thus  runs  the  account  from  month  to  month. 
It  shows  that  as  soon  as  he  was  released  from  his  obligations  to 
Stockton,  Ericsson  found  abundant  and  profitable  occupation. 
Had  his  honest  bill  against  the  Government  received  recogni- 
tion, he  would  have  had  to  his  credit  nearly  twenty  thousand 
dollars  on  July  1,  1844,  less  than  five  years  after  he  landed, 
a  stranger,  in  the  country ;   by  no  means   an    inconsiderable 


168  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

sum  for  any  professional  man  in  those  days,  and  especially 
for  one  starting  life  anew  in  a  strange  country.  During  the 
entire  year  1844  Ericsson's  receipts  were  nearly  forty  thou- 
sand dollars,  $39,121.16,  and  the  year  following  they  were 
more  than  double  this,  or  $84,536.84.  In  these  two  years,  as 
his  records  show,  he  was  carrying  out  contracts  for  steam-ma- 
chinery for  seven  or  eight  steam  vessels.  One  of  these  was 
the  Revenue  cutter  Legare,  another  the  Hevenue  cutter  Jef- 
ferson^  and  a  third  the  188-ton  twin  screw  propeller  Midas. 
The  Midas  belonged  to  Messrs.  J.  M.  &  R.  B.  Forbes  and  W. 
C.  Hunter,  and  was  the  first  American  steamer  to  pass  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope,  and  the  first  to  ply  in  Chinese  waters.  She 
sailed  from  New  York  November  4,  1844,  and  fell  a  victim  to 
neglect  and  bad  engineering.  Her  boilers  were  ruined  and 
she  was  transformed  into  a  sailing  vessel. 

The  Midas  was  followed  by  the  auxiliary  steam  bark 
EditJi^  450  tons,  belonging  to  Robert  B.  Forbes  and  Thomas 
H.  Perkins,  Jr.,  two  of  the  most  enterprising  of  Boston 
merchants  and  ship  owners  in  the  China  trade.  Mr.  Per- 
kins who,  during  the  War  of  1812,  served  on  a  private  armed 
ship,  and  took  part  in  several  naval  engagements,  was  familiar 
with  navigation,  as  was  also  Mr.  Forbes.  Both  of  them  were 
men  of  rare  force  of  character,  of  far-sighted  views,  and  in- 
dependent judgment.  It  was  with  such  men  that  Ericsson 
always  succeeded  best.  It  was  only  the  timid  worshij^pers  of 
precedent  who  feared  him.  The  "opium  war"  of  1842  had 
opened  five  treaty  ports  in  China  to  foreigners,  and  as  there 
was  an  active  contest  for  their  trade  the  Edith  was  built  with 
a  fine  model  and  a  full  rig,  to  enable  her  to  run  between  India 
and  China  in  competition  with  the  fast  English  opium  clippers. 

Speaking  of  this  vessel's  trial  trip,  Ericsson  wrote :  "  The 
Ed'dh  went  four  and  a  half  miles  in  twenty-seven  and  a  half 
minutes,  being  at  the  i-ate  of  nine  and  eight-tenths  miles  per 
hour  (statute).  My  guarantee  was,  as  you  will  recollect,  seven 
statute  miles.  This  result  far  exceeds  anything  that  has  at- 
tended the  application  of  my  propeller,  and  that  it  should  be 
80  in  this  particular  case,  being  the  first  in  which  my  patent  in- 
vention for  unshipping  the  propeller  has  been  applied,  is  most 
gratifying."     The  Edith  sailed  from  New  York  January  18, 


SUCCESSES   AND   FAILURES.  159 

18-15,  and  was  the  first  American  steamer  to  visit  British  India 
and  the  first  square-rigged  propeller  that  went  to  China  under 
the  American  flag. 

On  March  11,  1845,  Ericsson  acknowledged  the  receipt  of 
$1,000,  patent  fees,  from  Messrs.  Forbes  &  Perkins  for  the 
propeller  and  shipping  apparatus  of  the  Edith,  and  agreed  to 
protect  them  against  adverse  claims  for  patent  fees. 

In  February,  1845,  Ericsson  wrote  to  Sargent,  saying:  "/>i 
confidence^  our  Boston  friends  have  about  made  up  their  minds 
to  build  at  once  a  large  packet  with  my  auxiliary  propeller  for 
the  Atlantic.  I  am  almost  crazy  with  joy  in  consequence.  It 
is  by  far  the  most  important  move  yet." 

The  owners  of  the  Edith  were  so  well  satisfied  with  her 
performance  that  they  resolved  to  follow  her  Mith  another 
auxiliary  screw-steamer,  that  is,  a  vessel  rigged  as  a  sailer  but 
fitted  with  engines  and  a  propeller  to  be  used  as  occasion  re- 
quired. This  was  the  Massachusetts^  770  tons,  old  measure- 
ment, belonging  to  Mr.  Forbes  and  some  friends.  She  had 
the  same  general  arrangement  as  the  Edith  for  turning  up  her 
propeller  out  of  the  water  and  was,  like  her,  full-rigged  with 
double  topsails  and  masts  and  spars  aloft,  so  that  she  could 
either  steam  or  sail.  She  was  intended  for  the  transatlantic 
trade,  and  left  New  York  on  her  first  voyage,  September  16, 
1845,  as  the  pioneer  steam  packet  between  the  United  States 
and  England  under  the  American  flag.  Neither  of  these  two 
vessels  was  successful  commercially,  for  reasons  explained  by 
Mr.  Forbes  in  his  volume  of  "  Personal  Reminiscences."  They 
met  the  fate  that  usually  overtakes  the  pioneers  in  any  enter- 
prise, and  their  ill  success  was  in  no  way  connected  with  Erics- 
son's work,  which  was  done  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  the 
owners  of  the  vessels.  Fortunately,  the  Mexican  War  created 
a  demand  for  transports  and  these  vessels  were  chartered  and 
afterward  bought  by  the  United  States.  The  Massachusetts 
carried  Winfield  Scott  to  the  siege  of  Vera  Cruz  and  was  af- 
ter the  war  employed  on  Lighthouse  service.  She  was  re- 
christened  Farallones  and  was  finally  sold  and  transformed  into 
a  sailing  ship  called  the  AlasJca.  The  Edith  was  lost  in  a  fog  off 
Santa  Barbara  Cove  while  in  charge  of  an  officer  of  the  Navy.* 
*  Personal  Eemiuiscences.     By  Robert  B.  Forbes,  pp.  210-216. 


160  LIFE   OF   JOIIX   ERICSSON. 

Mr.  Forbes  sent  to  the  Navy  Department  a  most  flattering 
account  of  the  Mcissachusetts  and  proposed  that  Ericsson's  pro- 
peller and  unshipping  gear  should  be  applied  to  a  frigate,  de- 
claring that  it  was  his  "  greatest  ambition  "  to  build  a  ship  of 
war  for  the  navy  to  be  used  as  a  merchant  vessel  until  occasion 
required  its  service,  for  war.  At  this  time  Ericsson's  attorney 
Mr.  Sargent  wrote  from  Washington  that  the  Committee  of  Con- 
gress was  proposing  to  cut  down  the  Princeton  claim  to  $6,000 
and  pay  him  that.  To  this  he  replied,  saying :  "  So  far  from 
refusing  the  $6,000  recommended,  I  gladly  accept  it  as  a  god- 
send, since  I  liave  for  several  weeks  past  made  up  my  mind  to 
receive  nothing  whatever.  I  am  now  on  the  point  of  conclud- 
ing very  favorable  contracts  with  gentlemen  in  the  East,  which 
in  another  year  will  make  me  independent  of  Government. 
Hence,  $G,000  will  be  of  far  greater  importance  to  me  noio  than 
three  times  that  amount  this  time  twelve  months,  and  I  have 
good  reason  to  believe  that  Stockton  has  sworn  vengeance 
against  me  and  that  it  would  be  a  very  heavy  sacrifice  indeed 
that  he  would  not  make  to  pui-chase  my  downfall."  This  letter 
throughout  shows  liow  sound  a  judgment  Ericsson  had  even  in 
matters  where  his  interest  might  seem  to  blind  him  to  the  facts. 

Early  in  1845  (says  Mr.  Forbes  in  his  Eeminiscences),  I  signed  a 
contract  to  build  an  iron  steamer  to  be  called  the  Iron  Witch.  My 
associates  were  J.  M.  Forbes,  J.  K.  Mills,  W.  S.  Wetmore,  John  E. 
Thayer,  Edward  King,  M.  O.  Eoberts,  and  John  Ericsson,  the  eminent 
engineer,  who  designed  her,  and  expected  her  to  beat  all  competitors 
on  the  North  Eiver.  Hogg  <fe  Delamater  were  the  builders.  She  had 
sea-going  inclined  engines  of  great  power,  intended  to  operate  small 
paddle-wheels.  She  was  very  nicely  built,  and  had  superb  engines, 
plenty  of  boiler,  fire,  and  grate  surface.  AH  American  engineers,  who 
had  long  pinned  their  faith  on  the  beam-engine  and  long  stroke,  with 
wheels  of  large  diameter,  predicted  the  failure  of  the  Iron  Witch.  On 
trial,  it  was  found  that  she  could  just  beat  the  old  Troy,  but  stood  no 
chance  with  the  more  modern  boats  on  the  route  to  Albany.  She  ran  for 
a  time  in  charge  of  Captain  Roe,  continually  losing  money  ;  when  it  was 
determined  to  ti-y  an  experiment  suggested  by  Ericsson  ;  namely,  to  re- 
move her  side-wheels,  and  put  on  geared  side-propellers  ;  with  these  she 
made  no  increase  of  speed,  and  added  much  to  the  vibration.  Some  five 
or  ten  thousand  dollars  were  thus  wasted,  and  the  material  went  into  the 
Bcrap-heap. 

The  Iron  Witch — known  in  my  books  originally  as  the  Allegania — 


SUCCESSES   AND   FAILURES.  161 

proved  to  be  a  grand  failure.  Her  machinery  being  very  massive,  it  was 
concluded  to  put  it  into  a  sea-going  steamer.  A  contract  was  made  with 
Mr.  Brown,  who  built  the  Falcon,  taking  the  Iron  Witch's  hull  in  part  pay- 
ment. He  fitted  her  with  an  ordinary  beam-engine  ;  and,  for  a  long 
time,  she  ran  in  connection  with  some  railroad  on  the  North  Eiver.  The 
Falcon  was  sold  to  George  Law,  and,  I  believe,  was  the  first  to  run  in 
connection  with  the  Chagres  and  Panama  route  to  California.  It  will 
readily  be  conceived  that  the  Iron  Witch  spec  resulted  in  a  heavy  loss  to 
all  concerned.  The  wise  men  of  Gotham,  who  predicted  her  failure,  had 
no  doubt  that  her  powerful  engines  would  revolve  her  small  wheels  up  to 
any  desired  speed  ;  but  they  said  she  would  not  go  fast.  Ericsson  had 
no  doubt  of  his  power  to  work  up  to  more  than  thirty  turns,  and  had  full 
faith  that  she  would  go  over  twenty  miles  per  hour.  The  result  proved 
that  no  amount  of  steam  could  get  the  wheels  beyond  about  thirty 
turns ;  and  with  this  she  went  about  seventeen  statute  miles,  or  just 
enough  to  beat  the  old  Troy.  With  an  active  competition  under  the 
control  of  such  men  as  Daniel  Drew,  this  slow  rate  was  a  failure. 

A  speed  was  guaranteed  "  six  miles  per  hour  faster  than  the 
average  run  of  the  boat  Emjpire  upon  the  Hudson  River,"  and 
the  gentlemen  advancing  the  money  to  build  the  vessel  were 
to  have  one-half  the  patent  right  for  the  Hudson  Eiver  and  one 
half  of  all  profits  the  Iron  Witch  and  all  other  boats  similarly 
equipped  might  earn  upon  that  stream.  Success  would  have 
made  Ericsson  a  rich -man,  but  success  did  not  come.  Alto- 
gether, this  was  one  of  the  most  trying  experiences  of  his  life, 
and  failure  left  him  in  a  position  from  which  nothing  but  great 
abilities  could  have  extricated  him. 

Ericsson's  accounts  show  that  a  little  over  ninety  thousand 
dollars  was  expended  on  the  Iron  Witch,  and  nearly  one-half 
of  this  amount  was  furnished  by  Mr.  Forbes  and  his  brother. 
The  vessel  had  double  engines  and  in  these  the  steam  was 
worked  highly  expansively  and  on  a  new  plan.  As  both  pad- 
dle-wheels and  propeller  were  applied  to  her,  an  excellent  op- 
portunity offered  for  a  comparison  of  the  two,  greatly  to  the 
advantage  of  the  propeller.  In  a  letter  dated  April  3,  1846, 
Ericsson  wrote : 

The  Witch  ran  yesterday  up  and  down  the  Hudson  eighteen  miles  each 
way  in  one  hour  and  fifty-five  minutes  on  IQ^  pounds  of  steam  in  the 
boilers,  all  we  could  cany  without  foaming.  Her  si^eed  at  that  low 
pressure  (only  one-third  of  what  we  intended  to  caiTv)  is  conclusive  as 
to  our  ultimate  success.  ...  In  a  few  weeks  we  will  show  the  fast- 
11 


162  LIFE   OF   JOHN"   ERICSSON. 

est  vessel  now  in  the  world,  and  perhaps,  the  fastest  ever  te  be  seen  pro- 
pelled by  steam  force. 

Ericsson's  idea  was,  that  great  speed  could  be  obtained  by 
the  use  of  small  wheels,  and  over  eighteen  miles  an  hour  was 
certainly  by  no  means  a  contemptible  result,  but  it  was  not  suffi- 
cient to  give  him  and  his  associates  the  monopoly  of  steam  navi- 
gation on  the  Hudson,  which  he  had  confidently  hoped  to  secure. 
For  the  invention  he  filed  a  caveat  August  23,  1845.  In  it  he 
describes  himself  as  an  alien,  who  has  declared  his  intention  of 
becoming  a  citizen  of  the  United  States.  The  amount  lost  by 
Mr.  Marshall  O.  Roberts,  of  Xew  York,  in  this  enterprise  was 
sufficient  to  threaten  him  with  pecuniary  embarrassment,  but 
his  fortunes  took  a  happy  turn  just  then  and  within  the  next 
ninety  days  he  was  able  to  console  himself  with  the  addition  of 
half  a  million  dollars  to  his  possessions. 

The  business  associations  formed  at  this  time  between  Erics- 
son and  Forbes  resulted  in  personal  friendship,  and  this  con- 
tinued for  nearly  half  a  century,  or  until  the  death  of  Ericsson, 
followed  within  a  few  months  by  that  of  Mr.  Forbes.  The 
shipmaster's  ill  ventures  in  the  steamship  line  in  no  way  af- 
fected his  confidence  in  the  engineer,  and  he  was  in  the  habit 
of  consulting  him  upon  all  occasions.  Il£  asked  his  opinion  as 
to  the  rig  of  ships,  as  to  the  introduction  of  salt  water  into 
cities,  and  concerning  a  great  variety  of  subjects  which  occu- 
pied the  busy  brain  of  this  energetic  and  public-spirited  Yankee 
skipper  and  merchant.  In  a  letter  written  just  after  Ericsson's 
death,  giving  some  account  of  his  early  acquaintance  with  him, 
Mr.  Forbes  said  :  '"  This  brief  sketch  of  my  intimate  association 
with  Ericsson,  covering  a  long  period  of  time  and  much  cor- 
respondence, never  interrupted  by  an  hour  of  unfriendliness, 
proves  that,  while  a  man  of  positive  convictions,  he  never  gave 
me  any  offence,  and  proved  a  firm  friend  and  able  correspond- 
ent nearly  up  to  his  death."  * 

*  Letter  from  R.  B.  Forbes  to  the  Army  and  Navy  Jotimal,  March.  1889. 
In  a  letter  addressed  to  Mr.  Forbes  in  1883,  Ericsson  said  with  reference  to 
the  introduction  of  salt  water  into  seaboard  cities  :  "  The  subject  was  brought 
to  m_v  notice  thirty  years  ago  {i.e.,  1853).  I  have  ever  since  taken  much  in- 
terest in  the  matter,  and  strontrly  advocated  the  salt-water  system.  It  is  only 
a  question  of  time  when  it  will  be  introduced,  as  the  steam  engine  demand 
has  already  increased  to  such  an  extent  that  fresh  water  cannot  be  supplied. 


SUCCESSES  AND   FAILURES.  163 

Ericsson  in  1844  planned  an  iron  tow-boat,  built  by  Otis  Tufts 
for  the  Boston  underwriters,  and  named  the  li.  B.  Forhes.  She 
had  great  power,  applied  to  twin  screws,  was  the  first  twin  screw 
propeller  built  in  New  England  and  was  generally  recognized 
as  the  most  powerful  tug-boat  in  the  United  States.  After  a 
service  of  fifteen  years  in  Massachusetts  waters,  during  which 
she  towed  the  huge  ship  Great  liejntbHc  around  to  Kew  York, 
the  Forhes  was  sold  to  the  United  States  and,  in  1862,  towed  a 
frigate  into  action  during  Du  Font's  attack  on  Port  Royal. 
On  her  way  along  the  coast,  soon  after,  she  ran  ashore  and  was 
burnt  to  prevent  her  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  The 
specification  for  this  vessel,  dated  July  13,  1844,  provides  for 
water-tight  bulkheads. 

Objections  to  the  screw  arose  at  the  beginning  because  of 
the  practice  of  cutting  out  the  stern  of  vessels  to  make  room 
for  it.  Ericsson  accordingly  carried  the  propeller  shaft  on  the 
side  of  the  stern-post,  working  it  abaft  the  rudder  and  securing 
the  further  advantage  of  deeper  immersion.  This  device  was 
first  applied  to  the  Edith  and  Massachusetts  with  great  econ- 
omy of  fuel,  and  in  1849  was  adopted  for  the  U.  S.  war  steamer 
San  Jacinto,  1,460  tons,  whose  beautiful  lines  gave  opportunity 
for  a  striking  exhibition  of  this  new  method  of  applying  the 
screw.  A  precisely  similar  vessel,  the  U.  S.  S.  Saranac,  was 
fitted  with  the  ordinary  side-wheels  and  the  two  vessels  were 
tried  together  under  similar  conditions,  the  result  clearly  dem- 
onstrating the  superiority  of  the  screw  vessel.  I'Tow,  a  naval 
power  would  as  soon  think  of  building  a  vessel  without  engines 
as  without  the  screw.  To  meet  the  early  objection  to  the 
screw,  Ericsson  built  his  ships  precisely  on  the  model  of  sail- 
ing vessels  of  the  first  class,  with  similar  lines  in  the  run  and 
similar  form  of  stern,  the  perforation  in  the  hull  for  the  pro- 
peller shaft  being  the  only  indication  of  a  steamer. 

In  1840  Mr.  Isambard  Kingdom  Brunei,  the  younger  of  the 
two  eminent  engineers  of  that  name,  recommended  as  the  result 
of  his  investigations  into  the  merits  of  the  screw,  that  it  be 
adopted  on  board  the  steamer  Great  Eastern.  Previous  to 
this.  Captain  Richard  Clayton,  R.N.,  made  six  voyages  across 

For  the  steam-boiler  salt  water  is  nearly  as  good  as  fresh.     Other  purposes  are 
too  numerous  to  mention." 


164  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

the  Atlantic  in  the  pioneer  vessel  of  the  first  transatlantic 
line,  the  G-reat  Western^  to  note  the  exact  performance  of 
her  paddles  and  engines  on  behalf  of  Mr.  Brunei.  The  atten- 
tion of  the  Admiralty  was  called  to  Mr.  Briiners  conclusions 
concerning  the  screw,  and  Sir  E.  Parry,  Controller  of  Steam 
Machinery,  proposed  that  he  should  apply  the  propeller  to  a 
naval  vessel  to  be  built  for  the  purpose  of  experimenting  with  it. 

"When  his  engines  were  approaching  completion,  Mr.  Bru- 
nei inquired  as  to  the  progress  of  the  ship  and  ascertained  that 
the  vessel  ordered  had  never  been  laid  down.  As  the  result  of 
his  inquiries  he  was  sent  for  by  Sir  George  Cockburn,  the  First 
Xaval  Lord.  In  his  room  was  a  model  of  the  stern  of  an  old- 
fashioned  three-decker  with  the  whole  lower  deck  exposed 
through  openings  designed  to  make  room  for  the  screw.  On  this 
model  was  written  "Mr.  Brunei's  mode  of  applying  the  screw 
to  Her  Majesty's  ships.*'     Pointing  to  this  Sir  George  said  : 

"  Do  you  mean  to  suppose  that  we  shall  cut  up  Her  Ma- 
jesty's ships  after  this  fashion,  sir?" 

Mr.  Brunei  smiled  and  disclaimed  all  responsibility  for  this 
ridiculous  application  of  the  screw.  "  "Why,  sir,"  said  the  First 
Lord,  ''  you  sent  it  to  the  Admiralty."  This  was  denied,  and  in- 
vestigation showed  that  it  came  from  the  office  of  the  Surveyor 
of  the  Xavy,  the  gentleman  who  had  three  years  before  reported 
that  a  vessel  could  not  be  steered  with  the  power  applied  at 
the  stern.*  Mr.  Brunei's  experience  shows  how  useless  was 
Ericsson's  attempt  to  overcome  the  interested  or  prejudiced 
judgment  of  Mr.  Symonds.  It  was  not  until  two  years  later 
that  Mr.  Brunei  got  his  vessel,  the  JRattler,  and  so  thoroughly  de- 
monstrated the  advantages  of  the  screw  that  in  1S45,  eight  years 
after  Ericsson's  excursion  with  the  Admiralty  lords,  twenty  of 
Her  Majesty's  vessels  were  ordered  to  be  fitted  with  the  screw. 

The  unique  engines  of  the  Massac hxcsetU  furnished  the 
model  for  the  screw  vessels  of  Sweden,  and  her  horizontal 
double-acting  air-pumps  were  extensively  copied  in  the  British 
and  American  navies.  The  back-acting  engines  applied  to  the 
United  States  Revenue  cutter  Legare,  so  named  after  an  At- 
torney-General of  the  United  States,  were  copied  with  slight 
modifications  into  the  British  screw-steamer  Ain^phl&n.  in 
*  Life  of  I.  K.  Brunei,  Civil  Engineer,  p.  285. 


SUCCESSES  AND  FAILUEES. 


166 


1844  and  1845  Ericsson  applied  to  several  vessels  vertical  en- 
gines for  working  twin  screws  independently  of  each  other. 
These  were  so  unpopular  at  the  time  with  engine-drivers  that 
he  discontinued  their  use  but  they  have  since  come  into  favor, 
i^umerous  freight  steamers  on  the  canals  and  lakes  were  fitted 
with  machinery  especially  adapted  to  their  use. 

Ericsson's  plan  of  coupling  the  engine  directly  to  the  pro- 
peller shaft  met  with  great  opposition,  but  in  the  end  his  judg- 
ment prevailed,  and  the  rapid  introduction  of  the  propeller  is 


Auxiliary  Steam-packet-ship  Massachusetts. 

no  doubt  due  to  his  early  appreciation  of  the  necessity  of  get- 
ting rid  of  the  clumsy  gearing  through  which  motion  had  been 
transmitted  to  paddle-wheels.  The  change  involved  a  diflficulty 
with  the  valves  of  the  air-pump.  After  many  experiments  he 
finally  overcame  it  by  using  valves  of  canvas  resting  on  per- 
forated plates.  These  were  first  applied  to  the  Massachusetts 
and  attracted  great  attention  from  engineers.  On  this  vessel, 
also,  he  first  discarded  the  hoop  used  to  strengthen  his  original 
propeller,  securing  the  same  result  by  bracing  the  blades  diag- 
onally. 


166  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

By  1849  the  screw  propeller  had  been  applied  to  twenty- 
four  steamers  belonging  to  the  United  States  Government. 
Four  were  naval  vessels — the  Princeton  /  the  Water  Witch,  a 
harbor  tug ;  the  Scourge,  a  purchased  steamer,  and  the  San 
Jacinto,  1,461  tons.  Three  of  these  vessels  were  built  by  the 
Treasury  Department,  the  Jefferson,  Lcyare,  and  Sjpencer,  and 
seventeen  were  merchant  vessels — purchased  for  transport  ser- 
vice by  the  Quartermaster-General  of  the  army,  General  Jesup, 
during  the  war  with  Mexico.  Various  forms  of  propellers  were 
tried  on  these  vessels,  six  having  Ericsson's  propeller  and  some 
a  flat-bladed  propeller  invented  by  Loper,  who  claimed  to  have 
improved  upon  Ericsson. 

During  the  winter  of  1846-17  Ericsson  spent  much  time  in 
Washington  seeking  for  Government  work  to  retrieve  his  fort- 
unes, after  the  miscarriage  of  his  plans  in  connection  with  the 
Iron  Witch.  lie  made  a  most  favorable  impression  upon  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Robert  J.  AValker,  and  was  consulted 
by  him  with  reference  to  changes  required  to  improve  the  Rev- 
enue cutters,  being  also  i-equested  to  go  to  Pittsburg  to  take 
charge  of  alterations  in  the  Revenue  cutter  liohert  J.  WalJier. 
The  Secretary  gave  him  orders  for  the  introduction  of  his  sys- 
tem for  supplying  fresh  water  from  the  boilers  of  steamers,  and 
altogether  Ericsson  received  so  much  encouragement  that  he 
wrote,  April  27,  1847 :  "  Appearances  now  indicate  that  I 
reached  the  climax  of  misfortune  in  putting  propellers  into  the 
Iron  Witch,  and  that  I  am  henceforth  to  taste  some  of  the 
sweets  of  my  long  and  laborious  career." 

He  was  then  in  the  forty-fourth  year  of  liis  age,  and  had 
been  for  over  thirty  years  continuously  at  work,  but  the  end  of 
his  probation  of  disappointment  and  comparative  poverty  was 
not  yet.  lie  was  even  then  engaged  in  a  struggle  that  proved 
to  be  one  of  the  most  bitter  he  was  destined  to  know  during  a 
long  life  full  of  conflict  and  opposition. 

"  The  triumphs  of  genius,"  says  Dr.  Dionysius  Lardner,  "  are 
not  unattended  with  alloy.  The  moment  that  any  invention 
proves  to  be  successful  in  practice  a  swarm  of  vermin  aie  fos- 
tered into  being  to  devour  the  legitimate  profits  of  the  inven- 
tor, and  to  rob  genius  of  its  fair  reward.  Captain  Ericsson,  so 
long  as  his  submerged  propeller  retained  the  character  of  3  mere 


SUCCESSES   AND   FAILURES.  167 

experiment,  was  left  in  undisturbed  possession  of  it ;  but  when 
it  forced  its  way  into  extensive  practical  use — when  it  was 
adopted  in  the  United  States  navj  and  in  the  Kevenue  ser- 
vice— when  the  coast  of  this  country  witnessed  its  application 
in  numerous  merchant  vessels — when  it  was  known  that  in 
France  and  England  its  adoption  was  decided  upon — then  the 
discovery  was  made  for  the  first  time  that  this  invention  of 
Captain  Ericsson's  was  no  invention  at  all — that  it  had  been 
applied  since  the  earliest  dates  in  steam  navigation.  Old  pat- 
ents— some  of  which  had  been  still-born,  and  others  which  had 
been  for  years  dead  and  buried — were  dug  from  their  graves,  and 
their  dust  brought  into  courts  of  law  to  overturn  this  invention 
and  wres.t  from  Captain  Ericsson  his  justly-earned  reward."  * 

When  in  1838  Ericsson  applied  for  a  patent  at  "Washington 
he  appears  to  have  had  some  difficulty  at  first  in  obtaining  it, 
owing  to  a  supposed  interference  with  a  patent  granted  to  one 
Jesse  Ong,  of  North  Huntington,  Pa.,  May  23,  1837,  or  nearly 
a  year  after  Ericsson  had  procured  his  patent  in  England,  but 
before  his  application  for  it  in  the  United  States  had  been 
filed,  lie  was  informed,  however,  by  the  examiner  of  the  Pa- 
tent Office  that  the  similarity  was  confined  to  the  principle,  the 
application  being  new,  and  he  heard  nothing  more  from  Ong. 
The  principle  of  the  propeller  was  then  so  little  understood 
that  any  revolving  wheel  seems  to  have  been  mistaken  for  it, 
whether  this  was  intended  to  turn  under  or  above  water,  at  the 
stem  or  stern,  or  even  at  the  side.  As  late  as  May  17,  1873, 
Sir  E.  J.  Reed  wrote  to  Ericsson  :  "  The  action  of  the  sci'ew 
propeller  is  a  subject  which  has  not  been  exhaustively,  or  in 
my  opinion,  satisfactorily  dealt  with  by  any  English  writer." 

From  Abo,  in  Finland,  Samuel  Owen  wrote  to  the  London 
Engineer,  December  22,  1871,  saying:  "John  Ericsson  took 
the  idea  from  my  father's  propeller,  which  was  shown  to  him 
at  the  time."  To  this  Ericsson,  in  a  letter  to  John  Bourne,  re- 
plies with  characteristic  directness : 

This  assertion  I  have  to  state  is  an  unqualified  untruth,  the  com- 
munication addressed  to  the  Engineer  being  the  first  intimation  I  have 
that  the  steam-engine  builder  Samuel  Owen,  in  Stockholm,  at  any  time 

*  Popular  Lectures  on  Science  and  Art,  New  York,  1846. 


168  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

conducted  experiments  relating  to  stern  propulsion.  "With  reference  to 
tlie  drawing  of  Mr.  Owen's  propeller  wheel,  published  in  the  Engineer^ 
it  is  scarcely  necessaiy  to  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  it  could 
not  have  been  intended  to  operate  under  water,  since  the  blades  are  at- 
tached to  a  centre-piece  and  arms,  which,  if  immersed,  would  to  a  great 
extent  neuti-alize  the  propulsive  energy  of  the  wheel.  Mr.  Owen  pos- 
sessed too  much  practical  knowledge  to  support  the  blades  in  such  a 
manner  had  he  intended  his  wheel  to  operate  under  water.  Evidently, 
then,  the  wheel  which  Mr.  Owen's  son  mistakes  for  a  screir propeller,  was 
simply  a  transverse  stern  wheel  provided  with  flat  blades  placed  ob- 
liquely. It  will  be  observed  that  the  drawing  published  in  the  Engi- 
neer fui'nishes  no  evidence  that  Mr.  Owen  had  any  conception  whatever 
of  a  screw  projieller,  his  flat  blades  and  solid  centre-piece  and  arms 
being  incompatible  with  the  principles  of  a  screw. 

The  claim  to  priority  giving  Ericsson  the  most  trouble  in  the 
United  States  was  that  of  J.  13.  Emerson.  This  was  founded 
upon  a  patent  originally  taken  out  May  23,  1837,  for  improve- 
ments in  the  steam-engine  and  improvements  in  propelling. 
Ericsson  showed  that  no  draughtsman  could  by  any  possibility 
construct  from  the  specifications  filed  by  Emerson  a  propeller 
containing  the  distinctive  and  patentable  features  of  his  own  de- 
vice. The  Patent  Office  at  Washington,  with  its  records,  was 
burnt  in  1836  and  inventors  were  granted  the  privilege  of  re- 
filing their  papers.  Taking  advantage  of  this  privilege,  Emer- 
son filed  in  1841  drawings,  and  again  in  IS-IG  amended  drawings, 
embodying  in  them  features  obtained  from  the  plans  of  Erics- 
son's screw  previously  recorded.  At  the  time  Ericsson  obtained 
his  patent  a  thorough  examination  was  niade  by  the  Patent  Office 
of  all  previous  devices,  and  the  originality  of  his  device  estab- 
lished so  far  as  the  Patent  Office  could  do  so.  This  examination 
was  repeated  in  18-46  at  the  request  of  the  Xavy  Department, 
and  with  the  same  result.  Ko  attempt  was  made  by  Emerson 
to  introduce  his  propeller  into  actual  use ;  it  never  went  beyond  a 
record  in  the  Patent  Office.  But  when  he  found  that  Ericsson 
had  achieved  success,  he  brought  suit  for  infringement,  sought 
to  restrain  him  by  injunction,  and  busied  himself  with  tra- 
velling along  the  lakes,  where  the  Ericsson  propeller  was  com- 
ing rapidly  into  service,  demanding  royalties  for  its  use.  He 
also  gave  public  notice  through  the  newspapers  that  no  patent 
fees  could  be  safely  paid  to  Ericsson,  and  by  a  long  and  vexa- 


SUCCESSES  AND  FAILURES. 


169 


tious  litigation  kept  hiin  worried  for  many  years.  After  the 
issue  of  this  notice  nothing  further  could  be  collected  for  the 
patent,  and  Ericsson's  income  from  this  source  was  at  once  cut 
off  and  the  expenses  of  litigation  took  its  place. 

Emerson  finally  memorialized  Congress  asking  $16,000  as 
compensation  for  the  use  of  his  patented  "  spiral  propellers  " 
on  Government  vessels.  His  memorial  was  referred  to  En- 
gineer-in-chief of  the  United  States  Kavy,  Charles  H.  Haswell. 
He  reported  against  Emerson's  claims  as  covering  a  form  of 
propeller-blade  employed  neither  by  Captain  Ericsson  nor  Cap- 
tain Loper  and  "  positively  impracticable  for  any  useful  pur- 
pose." This  was  the  opinion  of  an  expert  whose  professional 
training  enabled  him  to  estimate  at  their  true  value  vague  re- 
semblances that  confused  courts  and  bewildered  juries. 

As  Messrs.  Hogg  &  Delamater  were  the  parties  defend- 
ant, they  had  been  subjected  to  the  expenses  of  litigation,  and 
on  February  24,  184:7,  Ericsson  executed  on  their  behalf  an  as- 
signment of  all  his  patent  rights  in  the  propeller.  This  as- 
signment specifies  the  original  patent  of  1838,  a  patent  for 
improvements  dated  November  5,  1840,  the  patent  of  Decem- 
ber 31,  1844,  for  an  "  unshipping  apparatus,"  and  the  patent 
of  September  9,  1845,  for  an  elliptical  propeller.  A  circular 
issued  by  Ericsson  contains  this  announcement : 

The  patentee  offers  to  dispose  of  his  right  at  the  rate  of  $3.50  per 
ton  register  measui'ement  for  vessels  of  1,600  tons  and  upward,  with  an 
increase  of  ten  cents  per  ton  for  vessels  below  that  tonnage,  thus  : 


Per  ton. 

Per  ton. 

For  vessels  of  1,600  tons $3  50 

For  vessels  of  800  tons  . . 

. .  «4  30 

(( 

1,500    ' 

'    ....     3  60 

700    "     .. 

..    4  40 

K 

1,400    ' 

....    3  70 

600    "     .. 

. . .    4  50 

« 

1,300    " 

....    3  80 

500    "     .. 

. .      4  60 

C( 

1,200    ' 

....    3  90 

400    "     .. 

. . .     4  70 

(( 

1,100    " 

....    4  00 

300    "     .. 

. . .    4  80 

« 

1,000    ' 

....    4  10 

200    "     .. 

. . .    4  90 

M 

900    * 

....    4  20 

100    "     .. 

...    5  0* 

J.  Ebicsson,  Patentee, 

95  Frankhn  Street 

New  York,  Marcli  15,  1849. 


170  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

Many  persons  occupied  their  day  dreams  with  speculations 
upon  the  possibility  of  screw  propulsion ;  some  experimented 
with  screws  more  or  less  impracticable  in  form  or  in  the 
method  of  applying  them  ;  Ericsson  alone  invented  a  submerged 
screw,  so  complete  at  the  outset  in  its  mechanical  details  that  it 
was  capable  of  immediate  use.  Further,  his  large  experience 
in  mechanical  construction  enabled  him  to  determine  the  best 
methods  of  applying  his  propeller  to  vessels  of  various  kinds. 
What  is  absolutely  the  best  form  of  screw  is  not  even  now  de- 
termined, nor  is  the  theory  of  its  operation  placed  beyond  dis- 
cussion. As  for  the  screws  invented  since  Ericsson  demon- 
strated the  advantages  of  this  method  of  propulsion,  their  name 
is  legion.  For  a  time  he  received  a  royalty  on  his  patent,  but  he 
was  forced  to  maintain  his  rights  against  constant  aggression. 
And,  at  the  end  of  a  long  and  expensive  contest  in  the  courts, 
it  was  finally  decided  that  the  invention  of  the  screw  could  not 
be  protected  in  the  United  States  by  a  patent. 

Nevertheless,  the  demonstration  of  the  efficiency  of  the 
screw  which  converted  the  world  dates  back  to  the  building  of 
the  United  States  steamer  Princeton  and  its  engines,  in  1S42-44, 
by  John  Ericsson,  or  from  his  plans  and  under  his  supervision. 
All  who  have  investigated  the  subject,  as  such  authorities  as 
Scott  Eussell,  Bourne,  and  Woodcraft  have  done,  will  accept 
the  dictum  of  the  "Encyclopsedia  Britannica,"  that  "a  small 
vessel  fitted  with  a  propeller  patented  by  Ericsson  was  ihejirst 
brought  into  practical  use."'  Long  after  steam  had  been  applied 
to  navigation,  battle-scarred  and  experienced  old  admirals  in 
the  British  service  were  declaring  that  a  sailing  ship  would 
always  beat  a  steamship,  and  that  steam  could  never  be  de- 
pended upon.  The  control  such  unconvincible  gentlemen 
exercise  over  naval  affairs  in  England  has  resulted  in  the 
British  Admiralty's  always  following,  instead  of  leading,  in 
the  march  of  improvement.  Long  after  the  screw  had  dem- 
onstrated its  efficiency,  the  English  dockyards  continued  to 
turn  out  the  good  old-fashioned  paddle-wheel  steamers,  and  in 
the  end  they  were  obliged  to  adapt  these  as  best  they  could  to 
the  new  motor.  Ericsson's  early  antagonist.  Sir  William  Sy- 
monds,  who  prevented  the  Admiralty  from  considering  his  in- 
vention when  it  was  offered  to  them  in  the  beginning,  contin- 


SUCCESSES  AND  FAILURES,  171 

ued  to  resist  for  twenty-two  years  longer  the  idea  of  adopting 
the  screw  in  war-vessels. 

When  in  1850  Ericsson  appeared  by  counsel  before  the 
Queen's  Privy  Council  and  asked  for  the  extension  of  his  Eng- 
lish patent,  it  was  necessary  to  prove  that  his  propeller  was  an 
invention  and  a  meritorious  one,  and  that  the  time  covered  by 
the  original  patent  had  not  been  long  enough  to  sufficiently 
remunerate  the  inventor.  The  proof  on  all  these  points  appears 
to  have  been  found  sufficient,  as  the  application  for  renewal  was 
granted.  Ericsson's  counsel  was  Sir  F.  Thesiger,  late  Attorney- 
General,  afterward  Lord  Chancellor,  and  finally,  as  Baron 
Chelmsford,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Conservative  party  in  the 
House  of  Lords.  Mr,  Thesiger  served  in  his  youth  as  a  mid- 
shipman in  the  navy,  and  was  better  fitted  than  most  attorneys 
and  judges  in  those  days  to  understand  the  distinctive  features 
of  Ericsson's  invention.  He  showed  that  the  only  propeller  in 
use  before  1836  was  the  Archimedean  screw,  and  one  with  arms 
like  the  vanes  of  a  smoke-jack;  he  pointed  out  the  advantages 
and  indicated  the  essential  differences  between  these  and  his 
client's  invention,  which  offered  the  first  "  efficient  means  of 
screw  propulsion  known  to  the  scientific  world."  He  described 
the  difficulties  encountered  in  endeavoring  to  secure  the  recog- 
nition of  the  screw  in  England  from  the  Admiralty  and  others, 
and  demonstrated  that  there  had  been  thus  far  an  actual  loss 
on  the  patent  of  £3,271  16s.  2cl.  This  did  not  include  these 
further  items  taken  into  account  between  these  parties  in  in- 
terest in  their  private  settlement,  viz.,  "  Captain  Ericsson's 
time,  three  years,  £1,500  ;  M.  Hobin's  time,  eight  years, 
£2,400  ;  Count  von  Rosen's  time,  ten  years,  £5,000." 

Mr.  Thesiger  gave  some  account  of  the  litigation  resulting 
from  the  rival  claims  in  England  to  the  invention  of  the  screw, 
ending  finally  in  the  union  of  the  several  interests,  and  called 
as  a  witness  Mr.  Bennet  Woodcroft,  whose  patent  for  screw 
propulsion,  taken  out  in  1832,  had  been  extended.  Mr.  "Wood- 
croft  said  in  his  testimony :  "  The  parties  having  patents  for 
the  screw  propeller  have  united  ;  they  are  Messrs.  Smith,  Lowe, 
Ericsson,  Blaxland,  and  myself.  After  fighting  each  other  for 
many  years,  we  have  got  tired  of  it  and  want  to  be  amica- 
ble." 


172  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

Bt  the  Attorn'et- General.  You  were  to  be  a  partner  in  the  profits? 

Ansicer.  Protits !     We  have  had  none. 

Question.  Did  not  Captain  Ericsson  first  introduce  a  fixed  shaft,  or 
a  shaft  running  horizontally  below  the  water-line  ? 

Answer.  Yes,  Cajstain  Ericsson  did. 

Question.  He  was  the  first  that  introduced  the  shaft  running  below 
the  line  of  the  water  through  the  stuffing-box  outside  the  stern? 

A7iswer.  Yes. 

Various  witnesses  were  called  to  establish  Ericsson's  title 
to  the  screw,  and  after  listening  to  this  testimony  and  to  the 
arguments,  the  Council  reached  their  conclusions  as  thus  re- 
corded : 

The  Attornet-Genekal.  I  understand  your  lordships  to  grant  this 
extension  upon  the  same  terms  and  the  same  conditions  as  Mr. 
Smith's  ? 

Mr.  Baron  Parke.  Yes. 

The  Attorxey-Gexeral.  And  fui-ther,  the  Crown  using  it  may  em- 
ploy engineers  to  make  it  ? 

Mr.  Baron  Parke.  Yes. 

Of  this  judgment  the  London  Mechanics'  Magazine  said  at 
this  time : 

The  Attorney-General  demanded  that  a  condition  should  be  attached 
to  the  prolongation,  to  the  efi"ect  that  the  Government  should  have  the 
use  of  the  patent  and  with  it  of  all  the  other  patents  for  the  screw  pro- 
peller gratuitously.  The  argument  relied  on  to  extort  this  concession 
appears  to  be  worthy  of  the  narrow-minded  policy,  which  has  almost  in- 
variably characterized  the  treatment  of  inventors  by  the  authorities  of 
this  country.  As  our  readers  weU  know,  the  proprietors  of  the  various 
screw  patents  have  been  at  law  with  each  other  for  some  years — they  re- 
ceiving the  shells  while  the  lawyei's  swallowed  the  oysters ;  and  when 
they  finally  make  peace  and  have  a  prospect  of  getting  a  few  of  the 
oysters  for  themselves,  they  are  coolly  told  by  the  Attorney-General — 
"  You  are  going  to  make  some  money  now,  so  you  can  bear  to  be  fleeced 
a  little."  This  is  really  the  tnith  of  the  matter.  If  people  want  to  use 
the  screw  propeller  in  their  national  capacity,  why  should  they  not  pay 
for  it  the  same  as  they  would  have  to  do  in  their  individual  capacity  ? 

The  Admiralty  subsequently  made  an  award  of  £20,000  for 
the  use  of  the  screw.  This  sum  was  divided  among  the  five 
inventors  whose  names  are  given  above  by  Mr.  Woodcroft.     The 


SUCCESSES   AND   FAILURES.  173 

proportion  coining  to  Ericsson  was  bj  liiiu  made  over  to  Mrs. 
Ericsson  who  was  living  in  England  at  the  time  of  the  award. 
To  his  associate,  Count  Yon  Rosen,  he  had  previously  (Julj  15, 
1845)  assigned  his  patent  rights  '*  within  England,  Wales,  and 
the  town  of  Berwick  on  Tweed  and  all  his  Majesty's  colonies 
and  plantations  abroad."  This  was  necessary  to  enable  him 
to  carry  on  litigation  in  England.  "  Berwick  on  Tweed," 
then  a  free  town,  independent  of  both  England  and  Scotland, 
now  constitutes  a  county  by  itself. 

Count  Yon  Rosen  took  charge  of  the  introduction  of  Erics- 
son's propeller  in  France.  At  tlie  end  of  ten  years  of  constant 
effort,  he  reported  that  it  had  established  its  superiority  with 
the  public  and  the  government,  "  but,"  he  adds,  "  I  have  ex- 
perienced nothing  but  disappointment  and  discouragement  at 
seeing  the  invention,  when  its  merits  were  acknowledged,  boldly 
infringed  upon  and  pirated  by  the  very  people  who  showed 
themselves  at  first  most  averse  to  it.  Xow  (February  S,  1848) 
there  are  upward  of  5,000  horse-power  of  engines,  made  or  in 
course  of  construction,  applied  or  to  be  applied  to  screw-ships 
on  our  system.  On  these,  a  large  amount  of  patent  fees  are 
due,  for  which  I  shall  be  obliged  to  sue." 

The  claim  made  on  behalf  of  John  Ericsson  to  the  honor  of 
substituting  the  screw  for  the  paddle-wheel  has  been  hotly  dis- 
puted. In  the  end,  when  all  the  evidence  is  sifted,  his  name 
will  be  associated  with  that  great  advance  in  steam  navigation, 
as  the  name  of  Watt  is  associated  with  the  steam-engine,  Ful- 
ton's with  the  steamboat,  and  that  of  Morse  with  the  tele- 
graph. Let  them  build  monuments  as  high  as  they  may  to 
others,  they  can  never  overshadow  the  memorial  which  the 
impartial  judgment  of  the  future  will  accord  to  Ericsson. 

As  a  screw  is  reported  to  have  been  introduced  into  England 
from  China  early  in  the  seventeenth  century,  its  origin  may 
be  referred  to  a  period  as  remote  as  the  invention  of  the  wind- 
mill, or  the  smoke-jack  it  so  much  resembles.  Still,  it  is  to 
Ericsson,  unquestionably,  that  we  owe  the  revolution  in  steam 
navigation  resulting  from  the  demonstration  of  the  possibilities 
of  the  screw  propeller. 

How  important  his  labors  in  this  regard  were,  in  establisli- 
ing  the  supremacy  of  steam  upon  the  ocean,  is  shown  by  the 


174  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

calculation  made  in  1S52  that  the  cost  of  £198  145.  3d.  for 
transporting  four  hundred  tons  of  merchandise  over  a  distance 
of  five  hundred  miles  with  a  full-powered  paddle  vessel,  was 
actually  reduced  by  using  a  screw  vessel  of  auxiliary  power  to 
£60  12^.  Ghl.  or  seventy  per.  cent.*  In  this  difference  lies 
the  solution  of  the  problem  of  competition  with  sails. 

Any  device,  from  a  smoke-jack  to  a  windmill,  with  arms 
turning  upon  a  centre,  or  having  the  spiral  motion  of  the  screw, 
was  considered  sufficient  to  antagonize  Ericsson's  claims  to  pri- 
ority. "  The  principle  of  the  propeller,"  Mr.  Sargent  tells  us, 
"  was  first  suggested  to  the  inventor  by  the  analogies  of  nature, 
and  a  study  of  the  means  employed  to  propel  the  inhabitants 
of  the  air  and  deep.  He  satisfied  himself  that  all  such  propul- 
sion in  nature  is  produced  by  oblique  action  ;  though,  in  com- 
mon with  all  practical  men,  he  at  first  supposed  that  it  was  in- 
separably attended  by  loss  of  power.  But  when  he  reflected 
that  this  was  the  universal  principle  adapted  by  the  great  Me- 
chanician of  the  universe,  in  enabling  the  birds,  insects,  and 
fishes  to  move  through  their  respective  elements,  he  knew  that 
he  must  be  in  error.  This  he  was  soon  able  to  demonstrate, 
and  he  became  convinced,  by  the  strict  application  of  the  laws 
which  govern  matter  and  motion,  that  no  loss  of  power  what- 
ever attends  the  oblique  action  of  the  propelling  surfaces  ap- 
plied to  Nature's  locomotives." 

In  connection  with  his  studies  of  the  propeller  at  this  time 
Ericsson  applied  to  the  equipoise  rudder  his  plan  of  investigat- 
ing the  operation  in  nature  of  the  mechanical  laws,  as  would 
appear  from  a  letter  written  twenty  years  later  to  Mr.  Kobert 
B.  Forbes.     In  this  he  said  : 

New  York,  September  29,  1857. 
My  dear  Sm  :  I  note  with  profound  satisfaction  that  you  have  been  in 
the  habit  of  swearing  by  me.  Swear  on  ;  my  opposition  to  the  equipoise 
rudder  furnishes  no  just  ground  for  your  withdrawing  your  confidence. 
You  say  that  the  several  engineers  that  you  consulted  all  pronounced 
in  favor  of  the  equipoise  ;  you  mean  that  all  of  them  agreed  that  the 
rudder  could  be  worked  with  very  little  power  and  that  it  would  steer. 
Any  person  of  ordinary  intelligence  could  see  all  that.  The  drag  in- 
separable from  this  steering  apparatus,  this  "vile  contrivance"  as  you 

*  John  Bourne's  Treatise  on  the  Screw  Propeller,  p.  183.    London,  1852. 


SUCCESSES   AND   FAILURES.  175 

remember  I  called  it  at  our  interview,  requires,  however,  some  knowledge 
of  hydro-dynamics  to  determine.  Your  suggestion  is  far  from  being  cor- 
rect that  my  knowledge  on  the  subject  is  mere  theory.  All  my  early 
propeller  experiments  in  England  were  made  in  boats  steered  by  equi- 
poise nidders.  I  know  the  critter  to  pieces,  and  so  do  the  canal  men  of 
Europe,  who  no  longer  favor  this  machine,  invented  for  the  lazy  at  the 
expense  of  force  and  time.  You  will  admit  on  reflection  that  a  rudder 
to  be  theoretically  perfect  should  form  an  elongation  of  the  vessel  and 
be  if  possible,  devoid  of  thickness.  The  Great  Constructor  of  the  craft 
of  the  deep,  not  only  canies  out  this  theoiy  but  adds  flexihility  to  the 
rudder,  which  renders  its  action  absolutely  perfect  by  presenting  the 
greatest  angle  at  the  aft  end. 

The  cuiTent  of  water,  instead  of  being  forced  violently  from  its 
course  along  the  body  is  gradually  deviated  on  meeting  the  mdder, 
thereby  causing  a  minimum  retardation  to  the  moving  body,  remov- 
ing at  the  same  time  the  gi-eatest  action  to  the  extreme  end,  where 
the  leverage  is  gi-eatest.  Although  we  cannot,  with  all  oui"  boasted 
ingenuity,  imitate  this  beautiful  property  of  flexibility  which  Omnipo- 
tence employs,  we  can  at  least  constract  our  rudder  so  as  to  form 
an  elongation  of  the  vessel.  As  the  thin  stern-posts  of  iron  vessels  admit 
of  a  rudder  almost  devoid  of  thickness,  we  are  enabled  in  that  class 
of  vessels  to  do  all  that  theory  demands.  Let  us,  then,  not  introduce 
a  detached  body  to  be  towed  abaft  the  vessel. 

I  note  particularly  what  you  say  of  the  small  angle  required  by 
your  rudder.  There  is  a  fixed  law  in  dynamics  that  "  every  deviation 
from  a  straight  line  of  a  moving  body  is  attended  with  a  given  diminution 
of  speed  or  momentum."  Do  not  suppose  that  there  is  any  way  to  cheat 
this  law. 

Very  truly  yours, 

J.  Ebicsson. 


CnAPTER  XL 

THE  ERICSSON   HOT-AIR  SHIP. 

The  Perfection  Engine. — Plans  for  a  War  Vessel. — Ericsson  Employed 
by  the  United  States  Government  During  the  War  -srith  Mexico. — 
Elected  Honorary  Church  Member  and  Becomes  a  Citizen. — Honors 
from  England. — His  Temperance  Principles. — Prosperity  and  Ad- 
versity. 

DURING  the  years  in  which  Ericsson  was  so  constantly  oc- 
cupied with  the  application  of  his  ideas  to  the  practical 
purposes  of  navigation,  and  in  defending  himself  against  the 
efforts  to  rob  him  of  the  fruit  of  his  industry,  he  still  found 
time  to  develop  various  new  inventions.  He  designed  in  1S46 
an  apparatus  for  heating  the  feed-water  of  boilers,  and  a  high- 
pressure  condensing  steam-engine  with  two  single-acting  cylin- 
ders, the  diameter  of  one  being  five  times  that  of  the  other. 
This  engine  was  patented  in  America  and  in  other  countries. 
It  received  the  special  attention  of  Professor  Dionysius  Lard- 
ner,  the  British  writer  and  lecturer  on  Pliysical  Science,  wlio 
had  been  Professor  of  Natural  Philosophy  and  Astronomy  in 
the  London  University  until  domestic  difficulties  led  to  his 
transfer  to  the  United  States.  During  his  residence  in  New 
York,  Dr.  Lardner  devoted  several  months  to  the  theoretical 
study  of  Ericsson's  engine,  and  he  continued  these  investiga- 
tions after  his  removal  to  Paris.  lie  estimated  that  Ericsson's 
engine  showed  an  economy  of  fuel  equalled  only  by  the  engines 
used  in  the  mines  of  Cornwall. 

Lardner  endeavored  to  introduce  this  engine  into  France, 
and  there  was  an  amiable  dispute  between  him  and  its  inventor 
as  to  whether  he  should  receive  any  remuneration  for  this  ser- 
vice. On  August  23,  1849,  he  wrote  to  Ericsson  from  Paris, 
saying  :  "  After  the  services  you  formerly  rendered  me,  I  think 
you  need  not  have  felt  much  hesitation  in  accepting  my  aid 


THE  ERICSSON   HOT-AIR  SHIP.  177 

without  thinking  of  compensation  in  any  shape.  I  can  assure 
you  that  I  would  act  for  you  as  zealously  and  carefully  as  for 
myself.  However,  seeing  what  your  sentiments  are  on  this 
point,  I  believe  that  it  will  be  best  for  you  that  I  should  at 
once  acquiesce  in  your  proposition  of  accepting  a  fifth  of  the 
net  profits  for  France,  if  through  my  exertions  the  patent 
should  be  rendered  productive."  As  Professor  Lardner  had 
gathered  $200,000  from  a  lecturing  tour  in  the  United  States, 
he  was  much  more  independent  in  his  circumstances  than 
Ericsson  was  at  this  time. 

In  the  spring  of  1846,  the  House  Committee  on  Naval  Af- 
fairs of  the  29th  Congress  considered  the  subject  of  employing 
steam  for  naval  armaments  and  sent  a  circular  to  various  per- 
sons, asking  an  opinion  as  to  the  practicability  of  rendering  an 
iron  vessel  shot-proof.  Among  the  replies  accompanying  the 
report  of  the  Committee  (Report  No.  681,  H.  R.,  29th  Con- 
gress, 1st  Session)  is  one  from  John  Ericsson.  He  argued  that 
"  the  weight  of  a  fioating  body  is  prescribed  within  such  nar- 
row limits  as  to  preclude  the  possibility  of  making  the  side  of 
a  vessel  of  sufficient  thickness  to  prevent  penetration  by  heavy 
projectiles.  He  recommended,  therefore,  a  system  of  water- 
tight bulkheads,  so  distributed  that  less  than  one-fortieth  of 
the  ship's  displacement  would  be  occupied  by  water  entering 
through  a  shot-hole.  He  proposed  also  to  strengthen  the  bows 
so  that  they  would  deflect  a  shot  when  the  vessel  was  fighting 
bows  on,  the  method  he  always  favored.  He  forwarded  a  plan 
for  a  1,200-ton  iron  vessel.  This  he  proposed  to  build,  and  arm 
with  two  12-inch  and  four  8-inch  guns,  for  $415,000.  She  was 
to  be  200  feet  long  by  36  feet  beam,  and  to  make  "  fifteen  miles 
an  hour  at  sea  in  pretty  rough  weather."  Three  of  his  guns 
were  to  be  placed  within  the  line  of  the  protected  bow,  one  was 
to  train  over  the  stern,  and  the  other  two  were  to  be  placed 
amidships.  These  guns  were  to  be  mounted  on  circular  rail- 
ways and  the  engines  of  the  vessel  were  to  be  partially  pro- 
tected by  stowing  the  coal  in  water-tight  bulkheads  over  the 
engine-room. 

This  Congressional  inquiry  antedates  by  nine  years  the  ap- 
pearance, during  the  Crimean  War,  of  the  first  French  armor- 
clads.  Ericsson's  rejection  in  1846  of  the  idea  of  undertaking 
12 


178  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

to  protect  the  ordinary  war-ship  against  shot,  cleared  the  way 
for  liis  iinal  conchisions  as  to  the  only  possible  type  for  a  com- 
pletely protected  armored  vessel,  lie  advanced  step  by  step  in 
his  study  of  battle-ships,  iintil  his  mastery  of  the  subject  en- 
abled him  to  act  at  a  critical  moment  with  the  utmost  prompt- 
ness and  decision,  while  others  were  yet  lingering  in  the  pre- 
liminary stages  of  discussion.  This  diagram  of  the  deck  plan 
of  the  vessel  he  recommended  to  Congress  also  suggests  the 
monitor  idea  of  all-round  fire. 


DecK  Plan  of  Ericsson's  War  Vessel  of  1846. 

The  committee  in  their  report  called  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  Princeton  was  the  first  ship  ever  constructed  with  her 
machinery  and  propeller  so  arranged  as  to  be  secured  from  an 
enemy's  shot,  and  urged  that  "  this  fact  should  hereafter  be  the 
governing  principle  in  the  construction  of  a  steam  nav}-."  They 
also  said  :  "  The  machinery  and  propeller  of  this  ship  were  in- 
vented and  arranged  under  the  superintendence  of  that  eminent 
civil  engineei'.  Captain  John  Ericsson."  The  committee  recom- 
mended the  building  of  twelve  iron  war  steamers  and  one  iron 
frigate,  but  beyond  the  competitive  trial  of  the  paddle-wheel 
Saranac  and  the  screw  vessel  San  Jacinto,  already  recorded, 
and  the  building  of  the  23-gun  paddle-wheel  steamer  Sus- 
qxLehanna,  nothing  was  done.  This  was  in  the  line  of  Con- 
gressional precedent.  In  1S16  the  national  legislature  had  de- 
cided that  the  navy  must  be  gradually  increased  and  improved. 
So,  for  the  next  twenty-three  years  they  spent  an  average  of 
$600,000  a  year  in  partially  building  frigates  and  seventy -fours, 
erecting  houses  over  them  at  a  large  expense,  and  then  leaving 
them  to  rot  on  the  stocks,  while  the  men  who  were  to  man 
them  were  deprived  of  tlie  opportunity  to  practise  their  pro- 
fession, which  the  commissioning  of  these  vessels  would  have 
given  them. 


THE   ERICSSON   HOT-AIR  SHIP.  179 

This  was  one  of  the  most  trying  periods  of  Ericsson's  his- 
tory, and  at  times  he  was  driven  nearly  distracted  by  pecuniary 
difficulties.  In  full  reliance  upon  the  justice  of  Government 
he  had  expended  $6,000  in  money,  besides  his  time,  in  the  work 
upon  the  Princeton.  This  involved  him  in  debt,  and  he  was 
constantly  harassed  by  the  attempt  to  meet  over-due  obliga- 
tions out  of  an  empty  purse.  His  check-book  shows  balances  to 
liis  credit  during  the  two  years  ending  with  May,  1846,  varying 
from  $1,000  to  nearly  $14,000,  but  much  of  this  was  expended 
in  completing  contract  work.  On  May  5,  1846,  he  was  reduced 
to  $38.54,  and  against  the  entry  of  this  ominous  balance  he 
has  made  a  memorandum  in  Swedish  to  the  effect  that  it  was  a 
most  discouraging  exhibit  for  so  many  j^ears  of  hard  work, 
lie  had  not  even  then  touched  bottom,  and  $23  was  at  one  time 
the  limit  of  his  credit  with  the  bank.  September  16,  1846,  he 
wrote  to  Mr.  Sargent,  saying : 

"  I  received  your  letter  of  the  14th  yesterday  afternoon, 
and  opened  it  with  trembling  hand.  My  worst  fears  were 
realized,  and  I  turned  nearly  crazy  for  a  few  minutes.  In  my 
despair  I  resorted  to  the  expedient  of  asking  Delamater  to  help 
me,  and  he  has  done  so  for  to-day,  appropriating  the  funds  he 
has  for  meeting  a  bill  at  the  end  of  next  week.  Kow,  if  in 
addition  to  my  anxiety  already  experienced,  I  should  ruin  the 
young  man's  credit  by  not  being  able  to  refund  the  money  by 
next  Wednesday  I  shall  have  to  cut  my  throat." 

"  It  is  unfortunate,"  said  Ericsson,  in  a  previous  letter,  "  that 
I  have  allowed  the  supposed  payment  of  my  Princeton  claim  to 
enter  into  my Jinancial  calculations,  as,  in  all  probability,  it  will 
be  the  means  of  throwing  me  on  my  beam  ends ;  still  more  un- 
fortunate is  it  that  immediately  on  the  success  of  the  Princeton 
I  did  not  pack  up  my  traps,  make  a  present  of  my  inventions 
to  the  United  States,  and  recross  the  Atlantic  with  a  grateful 
heart  to  find  my  retreat  left  open,  an  advantage  which  I  do  not 
now  enjoy."  * 

From  this  condition  of  pecuniary  distress  Ericsson  was 
for  a  time  relieved  by  the  fortunate  sale  to  the  Government 
of  the  steamer  Massachusetts,  in  which  he  had  a  part  inter- 
est, and  by  the  receipt,  December  27,  1847,  of  a  payment  of 
*  Letter  to  Johu  O.  Sargent,  New  York,  July  20,  1846. 


180  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

$4,300  for  the  application  of  his  fresh  water  apparatus  to  that 
vessel. 

A  portion  of  this  year  was  occupied  with  a  careful  study  of 
oscillating  engines,  and  on  June  17,  1847,  he  wrote  to  the  Com- 
mittee on  Engines  of  the  United  States  War  Steamers  that  he 
had  "succeeded  in  removing  the  principal  imperfections  of 
this  simple  instrument  for  transmitting  the  force  of  steam  for 
purposes  of  locomotion."  lie  was  also  called  upon  by  the  United 
States  Treasury  Department  for  a  report  upon  the  alterations 
required  in  the  Revenue  cutter  Poll:,  and  he  presented  to  the 
AVar  Department  a  plan  for  an  iron  steamer  to  navigate  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico  and  the  Kio  Grande.  This  was  a  time  of  war,  and  the 
Government  were  looking  in  all  directions  for  an  improvement 
in  the  means  of  transporting  troops  and  supplies  to  Mexico. 

The  apparatus  for  condensing  into  fresh  water  the  steam 
generated  by  the  boilers  of  ocean-going  vessels  was  applied  in 
1848  to  the  Alabama,  a  steamer  belonging  to  the  Quartermas- 
ter's Department  of  the  United  States  Army  to  the  U.  S.  S. 
JEdithy  then  fitting  out  for  the  Pacific,  and  to  the  Kevenue  cut- 
ter Legare.  The  profit  on  the  $10,725  received  for  this  ser- 
vice constituted  nearly  all  of  Ericsson's  income  for  this  year. 
But  his  frugality  in  personal  expenditure  enabled  him  even 
then  to  respond  to  the  calls  of  duty  and  affection,  as  is  shown 
by  his  remittances  to  his  wife  in  England  and  his  mother  in 
Sweden.  A  report  to  the  Quartermaster-General  stated  that 
there  was  a  saving  of  twenty-five  per  cent,  in  fuel  from  the  use 
of  the  fresh  water  apparatus,  and  that  it  condensed  all  the  steam 
generated  during  an  entire  day,  with  full  fires  and  engines  sta- 
tionary. The  captain  of  the  Alahaina,  after  a  voyage  from 
New  Orleans  to  Chagres  and  back,  said  : 

The  condensing  apparatus  for  making  fresh  water  for  use  of  pas- 
sengers and  crew  works  admirably,  furnishing  one  thousand  two  hun- 
dred gallons,  if  necessary,  for  twenty-four  hours,  enabling  us  to  dis- 
pense with  at  least  throe  thousand  gallons  of  water,  which  weight  can  be 
carried  in  fuel  or  cargo.  "Wo  drank  this  water  from  choice  during  the 
whole  voyage  ;  it  is  clear  as  the  purest  spring  water. 

Unfortunately,  iron  had  been  used  for  the  tubes  instead  of 
copper,  and  these  were  rapidly  destroyed  by  the  galvanic  ac- 
tion resulting  from  the  use  of  copper  in  the  vessel  itself.     So 


THE  ERICSSON  HOT-AIR  SHIP.  181 

the  inventor's  confident  expectation  that  his  apparatus  would 
be  introduced  into  other  Government  vessels,  and  ultimately 
into  the  Atlantic  steamers,  was  not  realized. 

In  January,  1847,  Ericsson  was  in  Philadelphia  experiment- 
ing in  the  use  for  locomotives  of  anthracite  coal,  which  had  been 
first  employed  on  steamboats  in  place  of  wood  ten  years  earlier. 
January  5th  he  wrote :  "  Christmas  and  Kew  Year's  have 
played  the  devil  with  my  work  on  the  Reading  road.  We  are 
now  at  work  again,  and  probably  this  week  we  shall  know  some- 
thing more  of  burning  anthracite  than  we  now  do."  He  was 
not  an  observer  of  holidays,  and  all  days  were  much  the  same 
with  him. 

Ericsson  became  a  naturalized  citizen  October  28,  1848,  and 
his  correspondence  for  1848  contains  the  only  political  allusion 
I  have  been  able  to  find.  The  Democrats  had  nominated  as 
their  candidate  for  President,  General  Lewis  Cass,  of  Michi- 
gan, and  for  Vice-President,  General  W.  C.  Butler,  of  Kentucky. 
Writing  to  his  enthusiastic  Whig  friend,  Sargent,  May  31st, 
on  the  eve  of  the  Whig  National  Convention,  Ericsson  said : 
"  Opposed  by  two  generals  your  party  cannot  surely  think 
of  any  other  man  than  the  victorious  soldier  whose  military 
lustre  is  nntarnished  by  a  single  spot  or  speck.  I  therefore 
take  it  for  granted  that  Taylor  will  be  nominated."  lie  sym- 
pathized with  his  friend's  enthusiasm,  but  personally  he  took 
very  little  interest  in  the  contentions  dividing  parties  at  that 
time.  It  was  not  until  slavery  became  the  main  issue  in  the 
contest  that  his  earnestness  was  aroused.  He  was  hostile  to 
slavery  from  the  beginning,  and  was  accustomed  to  say  that  he 
could  conceive  of  nothing  meaner  than  the  desire  of  one  man 
to  live  on  the  toil  of  another. 

1849  was  another  trying  year  for  Ericsson.  His  receipts 
from  all  sources  were  only  two  thousand  dollars  and  at  the  end 
of  this  year  he  records  against  his  balance  of  $132.32  on  his 
check-book  this  legend,  written  in  Swedish :  "  A  beautiful  bal- 
ance indeed  to  start  the  new  year  with.  One  gives  much  for 
little  as  he  grows  older  and  more  used  up."  He  was  occupied  in 
1849  in  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  secure  a  contract  for  an 
immense  pumping-engine  for  a  new  dry  dock  at  the  Brooklyn 
Navy  Yard.     "  You  must  know,"  he  wrote  to  his  agent  at 


182  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

"Washington,  "  that  I  built  in  Europe  a  machine  raising  3,000 
gallons  of  water  per  minute  to  precisely  the  same  height  as  will 
be  requisite  at  the  Brooklyn  dock  bj  means  remarkably  sim- 
ple, durable,  and  eflBcient  and  cheap.  But  as  we  have  no  dry 
docks  in  England  or  on  the  continent,  I  could  not  profit  by  my 
beautiful  machine.  Now,  however,  is  a  chance  of  making  a 
little  fortune." 

Ericsson  was  a  pioneer  in  the  attempt  to  solve  the  difficult 
problem  of  introducing  steam  power  upon  the  canals  of  the 
United  States.  In  1S44  he  entered  into  a  contract  with  Charles 
Dimmock,*  of  Itichuioud,  Va.,  to  build  small  steamboats  for 
canal  navigation.  It  was  agreed  that  they  were  to  exceed  the 
horse-boats  in  speed,  and  as  they  failed  in  this  he  became  in- 
volved in  an  unfortunate  litigation  with  the  purchaser.  With 
his  usual  hopefulness  he  had  guaranteed  results  which  the  con- 
ditions of  canal  navigation  made  it  impossible  for  him  to  realize. 
In  October,  lS-19,  he  entered  into  a  contract  with  James  S. 
French,  of  Old  Point  Comfort,  Ya.,  to  build  for  him  for  $3,000 
a  model  locomotive,  to  test  French's  invention  for  obtaining 
greater  adhesion  to  the  rails  and  security  against  derailment 
with  lighter  locomotives.  This  engine,  called  the  Climber^  was 
to  be  used  on  an  experimental  road  authorized  by  the  Virginia 
Legislature. 

In  1849  Ericsson  secured  a  patent  for  his  "  independent 
action  condenser."  It  provides  for  condensing  the  exhaust 
steam  from  a  marine  engine  by  passing  it  through  tubes, 
around  which  circulates  cold  water  from  the  sea,  the  water 
flowing  in  a  direction  opposite  to  that  of  the  escaping  steam. 
The  water  is  supplied  by  a  pump,  worked  by  an  auxiliary 
engine  so  as  to  be  independent  of  the  action  of  the  engine 
running  the  vessel,  and  can  either  be  returned  to  the  boiler  to 
be  again  converted  into  steam  or  used  for  other  purposes. 
This  invention  is  described  at  length  in  Ericsson's  volume, 
"  Contributions  to  the  Centennial  Exhibition,"  and  appears  to 
be  an  improvement  upon  his  previous  condensers.  In  1S47  a 
board  composed  of  three  naval  engineers,  and  four  other  ex- 
perts, reported  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  on  this  appar- 

*  An  ex-army  officer,  West  Point  graduate,  and  native  of  Massachusetts, 
who  died  in  the  Confederate  service  in  1863  as  General  Dimmock. 


THE   ERICSSON   HOT-AIR   SHIP.  183 

atus  as  applied  to  the  revenue  cutter  Legare,  saying,  at  the 
conclusion  of  a  very  flattering  report : 

We  cannot  but  congratulate  ourselves  and  the  profession  vnih.  which 
we  are  connected  that  you  have  seen  tit  to  test  this  experiment  by  the 
construction  of  the  apiDaratus  upon  which  we  have  been  called  to 
report.  Such  encouragement  identifies  in  the  merits  of  success  the 
patron  with  the  improvement,  and  is  honorable  to  yourself  no  less  than 
to  the  nation  in  whose  sei^vice  you  have  bestowed  it. 

They  reported  a  saving  of  7.56  per  cent,  in  fuel,  "  and  alto- 
gether, independent  of  the  loss  of  heat  by  the  presence  of  scale 
in  the  boiler  when  salt  water  is  used,  and  from  leaks  incurred 
by  the  oxidizing  effects  of  salt  water." 

A  number  of  minor  inventions  were  sent  to  the  Crystal 
Palace  Exhibition  of  1S51.  For  an  alarm  barometer  a  prize 
medal  was  awarded.  The  tube  of  the  common  barometer  was 
so  enlarged  at  the  upper  end  that  the  mercury  in  falling  ran 
out  of  the  lower  end  and  into  a  cup,  so  adjusted  that  its  weight 
set  loose  a  catch  and  released  the  hammer  of  a  gong  moved  by 
a  spring.  An  index  regulated  the  altitude  of  the  mercurial 
column  at  which  the  gong  would  sound,  thus  giving  notice  of 
sudden  changes. 

The  Croton  Aqueduct  Department  of  I^ew  York  adopted, 
after  a  series  of  careful  experiments,  a  fluid  meter  of  Ericsson's 
invention,  measuring  the  flow  of  water  by  plungers  of  definite 
size  working  between  stops.  He  also  patented  a  meter  for 
measuring  fluids  by  a  calculation  of  the  velocity  with  which 
they  passed  through  apparatus  of  different  dimensions. 

In  1S51  a  pamphlet  was  published  in  London  entitled 
"  Brief  Explanation  of  some  Philosophical  and  other  Instru- 
ments placed  in  the  United  States  Division  of  the  Industrial 
Exhibition  of  All  Nations,  Hyde  Park,  London,  by  John  Erics- 
son, Knight  of  the  Order  of  Yasa,  Member  of  the  Eoyal  Acad- 
emy of  Sciences,  Stockholm  ;  Corresponding  Member  of  the 
Franklin  Institute,  Philadelphia  ;  Member  of  the  Royal  Acad- 
emy of  Military  Sciences  of  Sweden  ;  Hon.  Member  of  the 
American  Institute,  Xew  York,  &c.,  &c.,  &c."  It  was  accom- 
panied by  this  dedication : 


184  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

To  His  Rotal  Highness  Pbince  Albert  : 

IiiLcsTRiors  Pkikce — In  laying  before  your  Royal  Highness  the  ac- 
companying Brief  Statement  of  some  Philosophical  and  other  Instru- 
ments placed  in  the  Industrial  Exhibition  of  All  Nations,  it  is  my  duty 
to  state  that  these  mechanical  productions,  the  result  of  much  labor, 
would  never  have  been  put  before  the  public  in  the  complete  form  they 
now  appear,  but  for  the  encouragement  extended  by  your  Royal  High- 
ness to  all  nations  alike — an  encouragement  entitling  your  Royal  High- 
ness to  the  gratitude  of  the  whole  civilized  world,  and  the  results  of 
which  maik  an  epoch  in  the  annals  of  mankind. 

Your  Royal  Highness's  most  humble  Servant, 

J.  Ericsson. 

New  York,  June  16,  1851. 

Included  in  the  brief  explanation  are  seven  of  Ericsson's 
inventions — the  instrument  for  measuring  distance  at  sea ;  the 
hydrostatic  gauge  for  measuring  the  volume  of  fluids  under 
pressure ;  the  reciprocating  fluid  meter  ;  the  alarm  barometer ; 
the  pyrometer  for  measuring  high  temperatures ;  the  rotary 
fluid  meter,  and  the  sea-lead.  Lithographic  illustrations  of 
these  several  instruments  accompanied  the  text.  The  various 
distinctions  referred  to  in  the  title-page  of  this  pamphlet  were 
conferred  upon  him  after  he  left  England  in  1S39.  In  1843, 
the  Franklin  Institute  elected  him  a  corresponding  member, 
in  recognition  of  the  service  rendered  in  desio-ning  the  steam 
fire-engine,  for  which  the  Xew  York  Mechanics'  Institute 
awarded  the  only  gold  medal  it  has  ever  bestowed  upon  an  in- 
ventor. In  1S47  the  Royal  Academy  of  Sciences  of  Stockholm 
elected  Ericsson  an  honorary  member ;  in  1850  the  Swedish 
Government  bestowed  upon  him  the  distinction  of  Knight  of 
the  Order  of  Yasa,  and  in  1852  the  Royal  Military  Academy  of 
Sciences  of  Sweden  elected  him  an  honorary  member. 

The  studies  into  the  nature  and  application  of  heat  as  a  me- 
chanical force,  begun  by  Ericsson  at  the  time  of  his  youthful 
invention  of  the  flame-engine,  were  continued  at  intervals  for 
three  score  years  and  ten,  or  until  the  end  of  his  active  and  use- 
ful life.  At  a  very  early  date  he  discovered  the  fallacy  of  the 
conclusions  concerning  high  temperatures  resulting  from  the 
use  of  Wedgewood's  method  of  measuring  these  by  gauging 
the  dimensions  of  a  cylinder  of  clay  before  and  after  heating  it 
in  a  furnace.      This  measuremeut  gave  21,637  degrees  as  the 


THE  ERICSSON  HOT-AIR  SHIP.  185 

temperature  of  iron  melted  in  cupola  furnaces.  Ericsson  satis- 
fied himself  that  this  was  at  least  six  times  too  great,  and  the 
actual  temperature  proved  to  be  2,786  degrees.  The  inven- 
tion of  the  pyrometer  was  one  result  of  these  studies.  Erics- 
son's method  of  measuring  high  artificial  temperatures  bj  the 
expansion  of  confined  gases  has  since  been  shown  to  be  one  of 
the  most  reliable  of  the  dozen  different  methods  tested,  and 
he  was  a  pioneer  in  this  field  of  investigation,  as  in  so  many 
others.  Of  the  others  none  have  been  superior,  except  per- 
haps Siemens's  method,  recently  adopted,  of  measuring  tem- 
peratures by  changes  in  resistance  to  electricity. 

After  his  removal  to  the  United  States  in  1839,  Ericsson 
continued  his  experiments  with  hot  air  as  a  motor,  building 
eight  caloric  engines  for  experiment  between  1840  and  1850. 
Seven  of  these  cost  together  $9,400  and  the  eighth  $7,000. 
He  gradually  enlarged  the  dimensions  of  these  experimental 
engines  from  the  fourteen  inches  of  his  original  model  to  six- 
teen inches  and  then  to  thirty.  Into  these  engines  he  intro- 
duced the  principle  of  "regeneration,"  as  he  called  it,  or 
transfer  of  the  heat  from  the  outgoing  to  the  incoming  air  by 
passing  the  currents  alternately  through  a  metal  box  or  chest 
filled  with  wire  meshes. 

Theory,  he  said,  "  clearly  indicates  that,  owing  to  the  small 
capacity  for  heat  of  atmospheric  air— that  beneficial  property 
which  the  Great  Mechanician  gives  to  it  as  a  fit  medium  for  an- 
imated warm  beings  to  live  in— and,  in  consequence,  also,  of  the 
almost  infinite  subdivision  among  the  wires,  the  temperature 
of  the  circulating  air  in  passing  through  the  regenerator  of  the 
caloric  engine  must  be  greatly  changed.  Practice  has  fully 
realized  all  that  theory  predicted,  for  the  temperatures  at  x 
and  z  [that  is,  at  the  points  of  entrance  to  and  exit  from  the  re- 
generator] have  never  varied  during  the  trials  less  than  350  de- 
grees, when  the  engine  has  been  in  full  operation ;  indeed  it 
has  been  found  imjpossible  to  obtain  a  differential  temperature 
of  less  magnitude  with  sufficient  fires  in  the  furnaces.  The 
great  number  of  disks,  their  isolated  character,  and  the  distri- 
bution of  the  air  in  such  a  vast  number  of  minute  cells,  readily 
explain  the  surprising  fall  and  increase  of  temperature  of  the 
opposite  currents  passing  the  regenerator,  and  which  constitutes 


186  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

the  grand  feature  of  the  caloric  engine,  effecting,  as  it  does, 
such  an  extraordinary  saving  of  fuel  by  rendering  the  caloric 
not  converted  into  work  active  over  and  over  again."  * 

Letters  from  Ericsson  show  that  he  was  at  work  upon  his 
caloric  engine  in  1847.  Early  in  December  of  that  year  a 
model  engine  was  sent  from  the  factory  and  set  up  in  his  room 
at  No.  95  Franklin  Street  for  experiment.  On  December  23d, 
he  wrote  to  Sargent :  "  The  caloric  is  very  nearly  finished.  It 
will  beyond  all  question  succeed.  Never  felt  so  sure  in  my 
life."  Six  weeks  later,  January  14,  1848,  he  wrote :  "  I  am  at 
this  moment  under  lock  and  key  with  Harrison,  who  is  en- 
gaged in  the  secret  operation  of  stuffing  the  guts  of  the  regen- 
erator of  the  caloric,  which  is  in  all  other  respects  ready  for 
trial.  I  have  had  pressure,  and  all  is  tight.  The  thing  must 
go." 

But  not  yet,  for  January  20th  he  wrote  again,  saying: 
"  The  caloric  is  not  yet  completed ;  a  deposit  of  water,  occa- 
sioned by  the  pressure  of  atmospheric  air  within  the  machine, 
has  given  me  trouble,  great  trouble.  The  steam  formed  from 
this  water  has  produced  inflammation  in  the  stomach  of  the  re- 
generator. Cold  applications  have  been  resorted  to  without 
reducing  the  undue  temperature.  All  that  medical  skill  can 
effect  will  be  done,  and  no  fears  need  be  apprehended  as  to  the 
safety  of  the  patient." 

On  the  principle  that  troubles  never  come  singly,  Ericsson 
at  this  time,  as  he  wrote  another  correspondent,  "  suffered  the 
pains  of  the  damned,"  having  been  obliged  to  lose  three  of  his 
strongest  back  teeth,  to  cure  the  toothache.  A  few  days  later, 
January  27th,  he  reported  concerning  the  ailing  one,  for  whom 
he  himself  served  as  physician,  that  "  the  patient  is  yet  labor- 
ing under  his  intestine  complaints,  caused  by  water  in  the 
stomach,  but  his  physician  entertains  strong  hopes  of  a  com- 
plete cure."     On  February  2,  1848,  he  wrote : 

"  I  fear  the  unexpected  difficulty  cannot  be  got  over  with- 
out a  material  change  in  the  apparatus.  '  Take  nothing  for 
granted'  is  an  excellent  precept  in  all  mechanical  combinations 
where  the  physical  agents  are  called  upon  to  cooperate.  Un- 
derstand me,  I  have  not  discovered  anything  wrong  in  the 
*  Contributions  to  the  Centennial  Exhibition,  p.  429. 


THE   ERICSSON   HOT-AIR   SHIP.  187 

principle  of  the  motive  engine,  practical  difficulties  alone  have 
presented  themselves  in  a  new  quarter.  Bent  as  I  am  on  doing 
something  great  in  my  line,  I  thank  God  that  I  have  the  vast 
steam-engine  improvement  to  fall  back  upon,  scarcely  inferior 
in  importance,  whilst  more  readily  convertible  into  dollars.  So 
don't  be  alarmed,  we  shall  still  go  to  London  together.'' 

This  indicates  a  purpose  of  visiting  England,  which  was 
never  realized. 

Five  days  elapsed  and  again,  on  February  7,  18-iS,  Erics- 
son wrote  :  "  I  have,  after  serious  reflection,  decided  on  mak- 
ing the  requisite  alteration  in  the  caloric,  the  new  parts  are  all 
on  hand  and  probably  in  two  M'eeks  I  start  again.  The  new 
difficulty  I  met  with  took  me  aback  for  a  day  or  two,  but  I  feel 
now  as  warm  and  confident  as  ever — now,  don't  laugh  at  me 
when  I  tell  you  '■next  time''  the  thing  will  go  off  without  a 
screw  to  alter.  I  can  hardly  be  mistaken  in  supposing  that  I 
now  see  all  the  difficulties  that  can  have  any  material  bearing 
on  the  operation  of  the  great  principle  in  practice.  I  am 
shocked  to  think  that  for  a  single  moment  I  should  have  con- 
templated relinquishing  my  gigantic  scheme." 

February  loth  "the  alteration  of  the  caloric  was  more  than 
half  completed  "  and  the  inventor  was  "  in  fine  spirits  and  full 
of  confidence."  In  another  fortnight  he  was  able  to  announce 
that  all  difficulties  had  been  overcome  and  the  caloric  engine 
was  ready  for  trial.  March  3d  he  reported,  saying  :  "I  wrote 
last  Saturday  that  the  caloric  was  ready  for  trial.  So  it  was, 
excepting  some  hard  ingredients  for  its  stomach  which  it  does 
not  take  five  minutes  to  cram  in.  !Now  these  ingredients,  how- 
ever simple,  the  manufacturer  did  not  let  me  have  until  last 
night — confound  him !  On  starting  the  affair  this  morning 
everything  went  straight  off,  as  I  had  calculated,  and,  as  you 
suppose,  the  thing  does  everything  but  talk.  I  am  writing 
under  the  click-clack  of  the  machine,  and  have  not  time  to  go 
into  particulars  now." 

We  may  be  sure  that  this  "  click-clack  "  was  music  in  the 
ears  of  Ericsson,  and  these  letters  indicate  the  intense  delight 
he  took  in  his  chosen  work  of  mechanical  creation.  "  Caloric 
does  work,"  he  wrote,  on  March  8th,  "  and  not  a  single  practi- 
cal detail  remains  to  be  removed." 


188  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

The  engine  here  alhided  to  was  followed  by  others,  as  we 
have  seen,  and  final]}-,  in  1851,  the  work  of  developing  this  new 
motor  had  advanced  to  the  production  of  a  ninth  experimental 
engine,  this  costing  $17,000,  having  two  feet  stroke  and  two 
compressing  cylinders  of  forty-eight  inches  diameter.  The  re- 
generator of  this  engine  contained  an  aggregate  of  13,520,000 
meshes  for  each  working  cylinder,  the  two  thus  distributing  the 
air  through  more  than  twenty-seven  million  minute  cells,  there 
being,  necessarily,  as  many  small  spaces  between  the  disks  as 
there  are  meshes.  As  there  were  228,000  feet,  or  forty-one  and 
one-half  miles  of  wire  in  each  regenerator,  the  metallic  surface 
presented  was  equivalent  to  that  of  four  boilers,  each  forty  feet 
long  and  four  feet  in  diameter.  The  regenerator  occupied  but 
two  cubic  feet  and  the  boilers  would  fill  1,920  times  that  amount 
of  space.  After  putting  a  moderate  quantity  of  fuel  into  the 
furnace,  the  engine  worked  for  three  hours  without  fresh  fuel, 
and  it  frequently  worked  for  one  hour  after  the  fires  had  been 
drawn.  But  eleven  ounces  of  fuel  were  consumed  per  horse- 
power per  hour.  It  was  estimated  that  nine  ounces  were  re- 
quired to  make  good  the  loss  of  radiation  into  the  air  in  con- 
tact with  the  exterior  of  the  machine,  only  two  ounces  being 
lost  in  the  process  of  transferring  the  heat  to  and  from  the  re- 
generator. 

1851  was  one  of  Ericsson's  prosperous  years.  He  had  en- 
tered upon  1850  with  some  sarcastic  reflections  concerning  the 
very  unsatisfactory  showing  of  SI 32. 32  to  his  credit  at  the 
Manhattan  Bank,  but  by  January,  1851,  his  balance  had  in- 
creased to  $8,690.10.  More  than  that,  his  improved  caloric 
engine  was  regarded  as  a  success,  and  there  is  an  entry  in  his 
accounts  recording  the  receipt  of  ten  thousand  dollars  from 
William  Bloodgood  and  Dr.  C.  Dellinger  for  ten  per  cent,  inter- 
est in  the  foreign  patents.  Previous  to  this  he  had  disposed  of 
interests  in  his  American  patents  to  Edwin  W.  Stoughton,  sub- 
sequently United  States  Minister  to  Hussia,  and  to  Messrs. 
Tyler  and  J.  Bloodgood,  the  entries  indicating  the  sale  of  two 
tenths  interests  to  the  two  gentlemen  last  named  for  $11,000. 

In  January,  1852,  the  King  of  Sweden  sent  to  Ericsson 
his  sincere  congratulations  on  the  success  of  his  test  caloric 
engine. 


THE  ERICSSON  HOT-AIR  SHIP.  189 

"  The  regularity  of  action  and  perfect  working  of  every  part 
of  the  experimental  thirty-inch  engine,  completed  in  1851," 
says  Ericsson,  "  and  above  all  its  apparent  great  economy  of 
fuel,  inclined  some  enterprising  merchants  of  New  York  in  the 
latter  part  of  1851  to  accept  my  proposition  to  construct  a  ship 
for  navigating  the  ocean,  propelled  by  paddle-wheels  actuated 
by  the  caloric  engine.  This  work  was  commenced  forthwith, 
and  pushed  with  such  vigor  that  within  nine  months  from  com- 
mencing the  construction  of  the  machinery,  and  within  seven 
months  of  the  laying  of  the  keel,  the  paddle-wheels  of  the  ca- 
loric ship  Ericsson  turned  around  at  the  dock.  In  view  of  the 
fact  that  the  engines  consisted  of  four  working  cylinders  of  one 
hundred  and  sixty-eight  inches  diameter,  six  feet  stroke,  and 
four  air-compressing  cylinders  of  137  inches  diameter,  and  six 
feet  stroke,  it  may  be  claimed  that,  in  point  of  magnitude  and 
rapidity  of  construction,  the  motive  machinery  of  the  caloric 
ship  stands  unrivalled  in  the  annals  of  marine  engineering. 
The  principal  engineers  of  New  York  all  expressed  the  opinion 
that  a  better  specimen  of  workmanship  than  that  presented  by 
the  huge  engines  of  the  caloric  ship  had  not  been  produced  by 
our  artisans  at  that  time."  * 

The  Ericsson  was  certainly  a  singularly  bold  undertaking, 
and  it  shows  the  confidence  her  designer  inspired  in  business 
men  that  he  should  have  been  able  to  obtain  the  money  to 
build  her.  Her  principal  owner  was  Mr.  John  B.  Kitching, 
a  young  man  of  wealth  and  enterprise.  Another  gentleman 
interested  was  Mr.  Edward  Dunham,  president  of  the  Corn 
Exchange  Bank  of  New  York. 

The  cost  of  the  vessel  was  about  half  a  million  dollars,  her 
engines  costing  $130,000.  Her  length  was  260  feet,  breadth 
40  feet,  and  draught  17  feet,  tonnage  nearly  2,200.  The  keel 
was  laid  in  April,  1852,  she  was  launched  five  months  later, 
September  15,  1852,  and  went  on  her  trial  trip  January  4,  1853. 
Thus  in  nine  months,  or  half  the  time  ordinarily  required  at 
that  date  for  completing  a  vessel  of  her  class,  Ericsson  had 
puslied  to  completion  this  vessel  of  novel  design  and  including 
so  many  new  and  untried  problems  of  construction.  It  is  a 
remarkable  illustration,  not  alone  of  his  industry,  energy,  and 
*  Contributions  to  the  Centennial  Exhibition,  p.  432. 


190  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

skill  in  management,  but  of  the  completeness  of  his  preliminaiy 
preparation  in  the  way  of  designing  and  planning.  He  could 
carry  in  his  head  every  detail  of  the  most  complicated  construc- 
tion, and  when  his  drawings  were  completed  every  bolt  was 
in  place,  every  screw  whei-e  it  should  be,  and  he  was  able  to 
keep  several  establishments  busied  on  different  parts  of  his 
mechanism  with  the  certainty  that  when  the  several  parts  were 
brought  together,  they  would  fall  into  adjustment  without 
change — provided  his  working  drawings  had  been  strictly  fol- 
lowed. He  was  most  exacting  in  his  requirements  and  he 
thoroughly  understood  what  good  work  was.  So  if  the  work 
upon  the  Ericsson  was  hurried,  it  was  in  no  respect  slighted. 

Up  to  that  time  no  finer  or  stronger  ship  had  been  built  in 
the  United  States.  Indeed,  the  agreement  with  the  builders 
required  that  the  vessel  should  be  "  the  strongest  ever  built  in 
Kew  York,*'  and  Ericsson  was  not  the  man  to  let  such  a  stipu- 
lation become  a  dead  letter  enactment.  The  Scientific  Amer- 
ican totally  condemned  the  principle  of  the  caloric  ship,  and 
persistently  predicted  its  failure,  but  in  fairness  it  said  :  "  We 
heartily  wish  success  to  Captain  Ericsson  and  his  compatriots, 
for  patriots  they  certainly  are.  The  caloric  ship  Ericsson  is  a 
marvel  of  faith  and  enterprise,  their  energy  and  spirit  deserve 
success  and  the  praise  of  the  whole  world.  The  caloric  ship 
has  new  and  very  excellent  features  about  it.  The  designer 
and  constructor  of  its  machinery  have  shown  themselves  to  have 
long  heads  and  skilful  hands.  We  have  seen  nothing  to  com- 
pare with  the  castings.  It  is  safe  and  comfortable  for  passen- 
gers, and  it  saves  the  firemen  from  the  pandemonium  of  our 
steamship."  '^  If  these  had  been  the  days  of  forced  draught 
with  fire-rooms  at  180°,  this  comparison  would  have  been  still 
stronger.  Comfort,  as  well  as  safety,  was  involved  in  Erics- 
son's grand  scheme  for  substituting  hot  air  for  steam  at  sea. 

A  week  after  her  trial  trip,  on  February  11,  1853,  "  the 
representatives  of  the  Press  "  and  others  were  invited  to  take  a 
trip  on  the  Ericsson^  and  the  papers  of  the  day  following  con- 
tained glowing  accounts  of  her  success  and  most  confident  pre- 
dictions of  a  coming  revolution  in  locomotion.  During  the  trip 
the  gentlemen  present  appointed  a  committee  to  draft  appro* 
*  Scientific  American,  New  York,  January  22,  1853,  p.  149. 


THE   ERICSSON   HOT-AIR   SHIP.  191 

priate  resolutions,  and  these  were  adopted  with  enthusiasm. 
The  members  of  the  Committee  were  Richard  Grant  White, 
Professor  James  J.  Mapes,  and  Freeman  Hunt,  all  gentlemen 
then  and  since  well-known  in  New  York.  One  of  these  resolu- 
tions declared,  "  that  the  peculiar  adaptability  to  sea  vessels  of 
the  new  motor  presented  to  the  world  by  Captain  Ericsson,  is 
now  fully  established  and  it  is  likely  to  prove  superior  to  steam 
for  such  purposes." 

In  a  speech  on  this  occasion  Professor  Mapes  said :  "  I  con- 
sider there  were  but  two  epochs  of  science — the  one  marked  by 
Newton,  the  other  by  Ericsson."  "  The  inventor  to  whom 
this  unwholesome  flattery  was  paid,"  says  his  critic  of  the 
Scientific  American^  "rebuked  the  speaker  with  manly  modes- 
ty." Some  years  later  (July  20,  1875)  Ericsson  wrote  to  this 
paper  saying : 

After  having  completed  the  general  design  of  the  motive  engines  of 
the  caloric  ship,  and  finding  that  in  jjroportion  to  the  power  exerted  by 
the  72-inch  trial  engine,  a  speed  of  five  miles  an  hour  called  for  cylin- 
ders of  168  inches  diameter,  6  feet  stroke,  I  hesitated  in  undertaking  the 
construction.  But  for  the  encouragement  received  from  some  of  our 
leading  commercial  men  who  were  consulted  on  the  subject,  the  caloric 
ship  would  not  have  been  built.  Let  me  add,  that  all  united  in  the 
opinion  that  if  a  speed  of  seven  miles  could  be  produced,  the  work 
ought  to  proceed.  Francis  B.  Cutting,  the  eminent  patent  lawyer,  who 
took  a  greater  interest  in  the  scheme  than  probably  anyone  else,  stated 
emphatically  during  a  conversation  at  the  Union  Club,  that  if  I  felt 
sure  of  being  able  to  produce  a  rate  oi  jive  miles  an  hour,  I  ought  not  to 
hesitate,  reminding  me  of  Fulton  and  his  first  attempt. 

I  have  never  before  communicated  the  above  facts  to  anyone,  except- 
ing a  few  intimate  friends  ;  nothing  short  of  my  integrity  having  been 
assailed  in  your  columns  would  have  induced  me  to  make  a  statement 
which  I  had  reserved  as  an  accomijaniment  to  my  account  of  the  world's 
first  and  last  big  air-engine. 

I  abstained,  in  my  letter  of  Saturday,  from  adverting  to  your  edito- 
rial reference  to  "  the  Ericsson  hot-air  stock-jobbers,"  confident  that 
you  had  inadvertently  made  the  damaging  remark. 

Replying  in  the  same  month  (July  7,  1875),  to  a  compli- 
mentary letter  from  his  associate  in  the  caloric  ship  enterprise, 
Mr.  J.  B.  Kitching,  Ericsson  said :  "  Your  remark  about  the 
caloric  ship  gratifies  me  more  than  I  can  express.     There  was 


192  LIFE  OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

more  engineering  in  that  ship  than  in  ten  Monitors.  I  regard 
the  hot-air  ship  as  by  far  my  best  work,  it  was  simply  a  me- 
chanical marvel.  The  four  168-inch  working  cylinders  and 
four  air-compressing  cylinders  of  137-inch  diameter,  sink  the 
Great  Eastern  machinery  into  insignificance." 

The  Scitnitijic  American  seems  to  have  struck  the  only  jar- 
ring note  in  the  general  chorus  of  approval  and  prophecy,  and 
to  this  Ericsson  made  no  objection,  but  the  suggestion  that  he 
was  a  party  to  a  stock -jobbing  operation,  or  that  the  gentlemen 
associated  with  him  could  have  any  other  motive  for  investing 
so  much  money  in  a  new  venture  than  the  obvious  one,  could 
not  pass  without  notice.  It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  prove  a 
negative,  but  such  a  charge  was  not  only  opposed  to  the  facts 
and  probabilities  of  the  case,  but  it  is  contradicted  by  the  whole 
course  and  tenor  of  a  life  as  absolutely  free  in  its  way  from  any 
suggestion  of  the  kind  as  that  of  Simon  Stylites  ;  for  Ericsson, 
if  he  did  not  dwell  on  a  pillar  apart,  was  equally  removed  from 
the  ordinary  currents  of  sordid  calculation  by  his  devotion  to 
ideas. 

"  The  age  of  steam  is  closed,"  declared  one  of  the  admirers 
of  the  caloric  ship  the  next  day,  "  the  age  of  caloric  opens. 
Fulton  and  TVatt  belong  to  the  past.  Ericsson  is  the  great  me- 
chanical genius  of  the  present  and  the  future."  Somewhat  too 
enthusiastic  as  to  the  ship,  but  not  so  far  wrong  as  to  her  de- 
signer. 

The  Baltic  and  the  Pacific,  two  vessels  of  the  Collins  line 
at  that  time  offering  themselves  for  comparison,  each  used  fifty- 
eight  tons  of  coal  in  twenty -four  hours ;  the  four  furnaces  of 
the  Ericsson  consumed  six  tons  in  the  same  time.  "With  this 
amount  eight  pounds  pressure  per  square  inch  was  obtained, 
and  a  regular  speed  of  seven  miles  per  hour,  with  a  possible 
eight.  Critics  declared  that  the  difference  in  the  coal  consump- 
tion was  due  to  the  difference  of  speed.  Ericsson  replied  that 
the  consumption  of  coal  was  nearly  all  due  to  radiation,  that 
increased  power  and  speed  would  not  result  in  corresponding 
increase  in  coal  consumption,  and  that  on  a  large  scale,  much 
of  this  radiation  would  be  prevented.  The  question  was  never 
tested.  Difficulties  innumerable  assailed  an  engine  working  at 
a  temperature  of  444°  and  constantly  subject  in  all  of  its  parts 


THE  ERICSSON  HOT-AIR  SHIP.  193 

to  the  destructive  influence  of  dry  heat,  burning  out  its  lubri- 
cants, loosening  its  joints,  and  rapidly  destroying  its  working 
members  by  oxidation. 

After  being  thrown  open  to  curious  visitors  for  a  day  or  two 
the  E7'icsso7i  started  on  a  trip  to  Washington,  February  16, 
1S53,  arriving  there  in  safety  after  a  stormy  passage,  and  with- 
out injury  to  her  machinery,  which  was  so  utterly  unlike  any- 
thing before  seen  on  board  ship  as  to  invite  the  distrust  of  all 
properly  constituted  sailors.  Her  four  huge  working  cylinderg, 
were  arranged  in  pairs  along  the  centre  of  the  vessel,  two  for- 
ward and  two  aft  of  the  midsliip  section,  and  each  14  feet,  or 
168  inches  in  diameter.  Instead  of  resting  in  the  usual  man- 
ner on  the  keelsons  these  cylinders,  each  of  924  feet,  or  691 
gallons  cubical  contents,  were  suspended,  like  enormous  camp- 
kettles,  over  the  furnace  fires.  Above  the  working  cylinders 
were  an  equal  number  of  supply  cylinders  or  single  acting 
pumps,  llyV  fsG^'.  137  inches,  in  diameter.  Eight  piston-rods, 
each  14  feet  long,  connected  the  mammoth  pistons  of  each  set 
of  cylinders,  and  these  pistons  had  a  total  area  of  43  cubic  feet 

Though  the  pistons,  with  their  connecting-rods,  weighed  up" 
ward  of  fifty  tons,  so  perfect  was  the  frame-work  supporting 
this  weight  and  that  of  the  cylinders  that  Captain  Sands  of 
the  navy,  who,  with  Ericsson,  accompanied  the  ship  to  Wash- 
ington, was  able  to  report  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Kavy  that 
not  the  slightest  movement  was  observed  in  any  part,  even 
when  the  vessel  was  passing  through  a  gale  and  rolling  very 
heavily.  Ericsson  expected  to  attain  a  pressure  of  twelve 
pounds  with  his  engine,  and  calculated  that  this  would  give  a 
speed  of  ten  or  even  twelve  miles  an  hour,  but  it  was  found 
impossible  to  exceed  eight  miles.  Still,  this  was  all  that  had 
been  promised,  and  the  failure  in  speed  alone  would  not  have 
secured  the  condemnation  of  the  vessel  if  there  had  been  suf- 
ficient prospect  of  increasing  it. 

Considering  the  time,  no  bolder  feat  of  marine  engineering 
has  ever  been  accomplished ;  so  that  it  was  truly  said  that  the 
caloric  ship  was  at  the  same  time  a  commercial  failure  and 
one  of  the  greatest  mechanical  triumphs  of  the  day.  An  effort 
was  made  to  secure  an  appropriation  from  Congress  for  build- 
ing such  a  vessel,  but  it  met  with  no  success. 
13 


194  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

Soon  after  his  arrival  in  Washington  with  the  vessel,  Erics^ 
son  issued  this  invitation : 

CaI/ORIc  Ship  Ericsson, 
Off  Alexandria,  March  4,  1853. 

Captain  Ericsson  requests  the  pleasure  of  the  Company  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Virginia  Legislature  on  board  the  new  caloric  ship  Ericsson 
for  the  purpose  of  inspecting  the  improvements  made  by  this  new  mode 
of  propelling  vessels,  which  will  afford  facilities  to  commerce  by  reduc- 
ing the  rates  of  running  ships  with  motive-power  even  to  that  of  sailing 
vessels. 

For  the  purpose  of  enabling  the  members  of  the  Legislature  to  visit 
the  vessel  with  least  possible  loss  of  time,  Captain  Ericsson  will  cause 
her  to  be  at  Acquia  Creek  either  on  Monday  or  Tuesday  morning  as  may 
be  most  convenient  to  them,  and  he  will  therefore  be  obliged  by  answer 
in  time  to  enable  bim  to  move  the  ship  from  Alexandria  to  Acquia 
Creek. 

J.  Cook,  Clerk. 

The  Virginia  legislators  were  entertained  by  a  speech  from 
the  inventor,  for  he  could  be  eloquent  on  occasion  with  the  elo- 
quence of  earnest  conviction  and  assured  mastery  of  the  partic- 
ular subject  he  discussed.  He  was  not  a  man  of  varied  knowl- 
edge, or  of  culture  in  that  sense,  but  what  he  did  know  he 
knew  thoroughly,  and  as  the  stream  of  a  given  volume  gains 
additional  power  by  running  in  a  narrow  channel,  so  did  the 
concentration  of  his  thought  give  added  force  to  Ericsson's  vig- 
orous personality.  He  was  accustomed  to  great  intensity  of 
expression,  he  had  exceedingly  clear  and  positive  conceptions 
concerning  matters  he  understood,  and  was  indifferent  to  every- 
thing else. 

In  return  for  the  courtesy  shown  them,  the  Virginia  Legis- 
lators invited  Ericsson  to  dine  with  them,  but  he  had  left 
"Washington  before  the  invitation  reached  him.  He  did  dine, 
however,  at  the  capital  with  "Washington  Irving,  who  was  then 
engaged  in  researches  connected  with  his  work  upon  the  life  of 
Washington, 


CHAPTER  Xn. 

APPLICATIONS   OF   THE   HOT-AIR   PRINCIPLE. 

Sinking  of  the  Ericsson  in  New  York  Harbor. — It  is  Raised  and  Takes 
the  Seventh  New  York  Regiment  to  Richmond. — Its  Use  during 
the  Civil  War. — Attempts  to  Apply  Hot  Air  on  a  Large  Scale  Aban- 
doned.— Its  Application  to  Small  Motors. — Speculations  as  to  the 
Moral  Results  to  Follow  their  Adoption. — Prince  Ki-apotkin's  Opin- 
ion.— Large  Demand  for  the  Caloric  Engine. — Its  Advantages  and 
Profits. 

AFTER  the  caloric  ship  returned  to  New  York  from  Wash- 
ington, it  was  decided  to  make  changes  in  lier  engines  to 
increase  their  efficiency  and  correct  defects  revealing  themselves 
in  actual  practice.  Ericsson  seems  to  have  counted  too  confi- 
dentlv  on  his  regenerator,  and  the  heating  power  was  insuf- 
ficient. Blowers  were  therefore  added  to  force  the  draft  and 
make  good  the  deficiency  in  the  area  of  grate  surface.  The 
Ericsson  was  finally  made  ready  for  another  trial,  and  took  a 
trip  down  New  York  Bay  on  March  15,  1854.  A  second  trip 
followed  on  April  2Tth,  and  the  next  day  Ericsson  wrote  to 
Mr.  Sargent,  concerning  the  results  as  follows  : 

At  the  very  moment  of  success — of  brilliant  success — fate  has  dealt 
me  the  severest  blow  I  ever  received.  We  yesterday  went  out  on  a  private 
preparatory  trial  of  the  caloric  ship,  during  which  all  our  anticipations 
were  realized.  We  attained  a  speed  of  from  twelve  to  thirteen  turns  of 
our  paddle-wheels,  equal  to  full  eleven  miles  an  horn*,  without  j^utting 
forth  anything  like  our  maximum  power.  All  went  on  magnificently 
until  within  a  mile  or  two  of  the  city  (on  our  return  from  Sandy  Hook), 
when  our  beautiful  ship  was  struck  by  a  terrific  tornado  on  our  larboard 
quarter,  careening  the  hull  so  far  as  to  put  comj^letely  under  water  the 
lower  starboard  ports,  which  unfortunately  the  men  on  the  freight  deck 
had  opened  to  clear  out  some  rubbish,  the  day  being  veiy  fine.  The 
men,  so  far  as  we  can  learn,  became  terrified  and  ran  on  deck  without 
closing  the  ports,  and  the  hold  filled  so  rapidly  as  to  sink  the  ship  in  a 


196  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

few  minutes.  I  need  not  tell  you  vfhai  my  feelings  were  as  I  watched 
the  destructive  element  entering  the  fireijlaces  of  the  engines,  and  as 
the  noble  fabric,  yielding  under  my  feet,  disappeared  inch  by  inch.  A 
more  sudden  transition  from  gladness  and  exvdtation  to  disappointment 
and  regret  is  scarcely  on  record.  Two  years  of  anxious  labor  had  been 
brought  to  a  successful  close,  the  finest  and  strongest  ship  perhaps  ever 
built  was  gliding  on  the  placid  surface  of  the  finest  harbor  in  the  world 
and  within  a  few  cable  lengths  of  her  anchorage  ;  yet,  with  such  solid 
grounds  for  exultation,  and  with  such  perfect  secui-ity  from  danger,  a 
freak  of  the  elements  effected  utter  annihilation  in  the  space  of  a  few 
minutes. 

As  it  was  impossible  under  these  circumstances  to  demon- 
strate the  capacity  of  the  vessel,  a  certificate  of  her  performance 
on  the  trip  that  ended  thus  disastrously  was  prepared  and 
signed  by  five  persons  who  witnessed  it.  They  united  in  saying 
that  the  engines  of  the  vessel  were  worked  up  to  ''  twelve  turns 
per  minute  against  quite  a  smart  breeze."  An  average  pressure 
of  seventeen  and  one-half  pounds  was  carried  in  both  furnaces, 
and  a  mean  pressure  at  the  time  of  closing  the  cut-off  valve  of 
twelve  and  one-half  pounds  per  square  inch.  This  gave  eleven 
miles  an  hour  through  the  water,  the  wheels  being  thirty-two 
feet  in  diameter.  The  excursion  being  merely  preparatory  to 
a  regular  trial  trip,  the  consumption  of  fuel  was  not  ascertained. 
These  witnesses  estimated  it  at  a  little  less  than  nine  tons  for 
twenty-four  hours. 

In  response  to  Sargent's  letter  of  condolence,  Ericsson  said  • 
"You  are  quite  right  in  thinking  that  it  takes  something  more 
to  kill  me  than  the  sinking  of  a  ship,  though  it  carried  down 
the  results  of  twenty  years  of  labor.  I  am  in  abundant  pin- 
money,  having  brought  out  some  small  inventions  kept  back 
by  the  absorbing  caloric." 

The  same  day,  May  1st,  he  wrote  :  "  The  ship  is  up,  much 
to  the  sorrow  of  numerous  wise  men  who  predicted  that  the 
thing  could  not  be  done.  Pray  present  my  warm  thanks  to 
Commodore  Smith  for  the  prompt  manner  in  which  he  ordered 
his  officers  to  put  the  ship  on  the  Government  Dock.  Gentle- 
men are  so  confoundedly  scarce  in  these  diggings  that  it  is  quite 
refreshing  to  me  to  come  in  contact  with  the  officers  of  the 
Navy  now  and  then."  This  was  Commodore  Joseph  E.  Smith, 
Chief  of  the  Naval  Bureau  of  Yards  and  Docks  from  1S46  to 


APPLICATIONS   OF  THE  HOT-AIR  PRINCIPLE. 


197 


1869.    Of  him  we  shall  hear  more  in  connection  with  Ericsson's 
work. 

After  examining  the  caloric  ship,  Ericsson  reported  on  the 
19th  of  May  that  twelve  thousand  dollars  would  be  required  to 
put  her  machinery  in  order.  It  was  finally  decided  to  take  out 
her  caloric  engines  and  convert  her  into  a  steamer.  Though  the 
economy  of  fuel  in  hot-air  engines  was  very  considerable,  it  was 
accompanied  by  too  great  a  sacrifice  of  space,  and  too  great  an 
outlay  of  machinery,  to  permit  competition  with  the  steam- 
engine  at  its  best  estate.  Each  of  the  four  "  regenerators " 
of  the  engines  on  the  caloric  ship  contained  fifty  disks  of  one- 


The  Caloric  Ship  Ericsson. 


sixteenth  inch  wire  netting,  each  disk  measuring  six  by  four 
or  twenty-four  square  feet.  As  the  open  spaces  in  each 
disk  measured  one-half  this,  or  twelve  square  feet,  there  was 
no  appreciable  resistance  to  the  passage  of  the  air  to  and  from 
the  cylinders,  Ericsson  tells  us.  But  the  expansion  of  the 
air  in  the  supply-cylinders,  resulting  from  the  great  volume 
of  the  vessels  containing  the  wires  through  which  the  air 
passed,  seriously  diminished  the  effect  from  the  working 
cylinders. 

After  her  transformation  into  a  steamer,  the  Ericsson  was 
chartered,  in  1858,  to  carry  the  Seventh  New  York  Regiment 
to  Richmond,  Ya.,  on  the  occasion  of  transferring  to  Hollywood 


198  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

Cemetery  the  remains  of  James  Monroe,  Ex-President  of  the 
United  States.  She  was  subsequently  used  during  the  Civil 
War  as  a  Government  transport,  and  with  her  four  small  smoke- 
stacks was  conspicuous  in  the  picturesque  group  of  vessels  as- 
sembled at  the  capture  of  Port  lioyal.  S.  C,  by  Commodore  S. 
F.  Da  Pont.  After  serving  as  a  transport  for  a  time  she  was 
fitted  up  with  a  battery  of  small  guns  and  sent  cruising  after  a 
Confederate  vessel.  She  was  finally  converted  into  a  sailer  and 
employed  by  the  British  Government  in  carrying  coal  to  one 
of  their  stations  in  the  Pacific. 

In  his  Centenni&l  volume  (p.  43S)  Ericsson  says  of  this 
vessel :  "  The  average  speed  at  sea  proving  insufficient  for 
commercial  purposes,  the  owners,  with  regret,  acceded  to  my 
proposition  to  remove  the  costly  machinery,  although  it  had 
proved  perfect  as  a  mechanical  combination.  The  resources  of 
modern  engineering  having  been  exhausted  in  producing  the 
motors  of  the  caloric  ship,  the  important  question  has  forever 
been  set  at  rest :  Can  heated  air  as  a  motor  compete  on  a  large 
scale  with  steam  ?  The  commercial  world  is  indebted  to  Amer- 
ican enterprise — to  Xew  York  enterprise,  for  having  settled  a 
question  of  such  vital  importance.  The  marine  engineer  has 
thus  been  encouraged  to  renew  his  efforts  to  perfect  the  steam- 
engine,  without  fear  of  rivalry  from  a  motor  depending  on 
the  dilatation  of  atmospheric  air  by  heat." 

Though  Ericsson  was  able  in  after  years  to  speak  so  philoso- 
phically concerning  his  defeat  in  the  matter  of  the  caloric  ship, 
we  may  be  sure  that  the  experience  at  the  time  was  most 
bitter  and  humiliating.  Xothino'  better  illustrates  his  energv 
and  force  of  character,  and  his  unfailing  confidence  in  his  own 
mechanical  conceptions,  than  the  fact  that  he  still  continued 
his  labors  upon  his  caloric  engine.  The  triumphant  assertion 
of  his  friends  that  "  the  age  of  steam  had  closed  ;  that  of  ca- 
loric had  opened,"  was  falsified.  He  was  compelled  to  submit 
to  the  gibes  of  his  enemies  and  the  laughter  of  a  world  that 
takes  no  account  of  efforts  whose  results  are  for  the  future : 
but  he  was  not  discouraged.  "When  told  that  the  name  of  his 
friend  and  associate  in  the  caloric  enterprise,  Mr.  John  B. 
Ivitching,  stood  very  low  in  Lombard  Street  in  consequence  of 
his  connection  with  this  invention,  Ericsson  indignantly  replied 


APPLICATIONS   OF   THE   HOT-AIR  PRINCIPLE.  199 

that  the  caloric  was  "  a  boon  to  humanity,  and  was  another  step 
in  the  progress  of  man  ordained  by  God." 

On  April  23,  1853,  in  a  letter  to  the  London  Builder,  he 
had  said : 

The  caloric  engine  is  destined  ere  long,  its  opponents  notwithstand- 
ing, to  be  the  great  motor  for  manufacturing  and  domestic  purposes,  be- 
cause of  its  entire  freedom  from  danger  alone.  It  is  destined  assuredly 
to  eflfect  much  in  dispensing  with  physical  toil  with  the  laborer.  The 
artisan  of  moderate  means  may  place  it  in  his  room,  where  it  will  serve 
as  a  stove  while  turning  his  lathe,  at  the  same  time  purifying  the  at- 
mosphere by  pumping  out  the  impure  air  and  passing  it  off  into  the 
chimney.  In  fine,  it  will  heat,  toil,  ventilate,  and  always  remain  harm- 
less. All  this  will  soon  be  exhibited  in  practice  and  save  critics  from 
racking  their  brains  to  discover  theoretical  mistakes  and  practical  im- 
perfections. 

The  caloric  engine  was  finally  made  available  for  many  com- 
mercial purposes,  but  its  inventor  was  obliged  to  postpone  fur- 
ther attempts  to  supersede  steam.  The  radical  vice  of  all  air- 
engines  employing  a  cylinder  and  piston,  is  the  necessity  for 
using  very  large  engines  and  very  high  heat  in  order  to  se- 
cure the  necessary  difference  of  temperature  between  the  two 
sides  of  the  piston.  This  speedily  burns  out  the  machine,  as 
iron  becomes  red  hot  at  650°  C.  Lubricants  are  decomposed, 
packing  destroyed,  and,  by  the  expansion  of  the  metal,  joints  are 
loosened  and  the  whole  structure  weakened.  But  partial  suc- 
cess came  only  at  the  end  of  efforts  and  struggles  on  the  part 
of  Ericsson  such  as  would  have  discouraged  anyone  but  an  in- 
ventor. What  he  endured  is  told  in  this  letter  addressed  by 
him  to  his  associates  in  the  caloric  enterprise,  Messrs.  Stough- 
ton,  Tyler,  and  Bloodgood,  January  16,  1855. 

You  will  not  be  surprised  to  learn  that  for  want  of  means  I  have,  after 
prolonged  struggles,  at  last  been  compelled  to  abandon  the  prosecution 
of  the  invention  which  formed  the  subject  of  our  several  agreements 
four  years  ago.  Whilst  I  refrain  from  dwelling  on  the  painful  disap- 
pointment I  experience  in  being  thus  forced  to  abandon  the  grand  idea 
of  the  wire  system  which,  together  with  that  peculiarly  simple  an-ange- 
ment  of  inverted  cylinders,  formed  the  principle  of  the  improved  caloric 
engine  which  you  joined  me  in  prosecuting,  I  feel  bound  emphatically 
to  state  my  conviction  that  this  extraordinary  system  of  obtaining  mo- 
tive power  .will  some  day  be  perfected. 


200  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

I  repeat  now  what  I  stated  to  you  at  our  first  interview,  that  on  the 
principle  of  the  improved  caloric  engine  under  consideration  more 
motive  power  mav  be  obtained  from  a  mess  of  metallic  wires  of  two 
feet  cube  than  from  a  whole  mountain  of  coal,  as  applied  in  the  present 
steam-engine.  Every  experimental  trial  made  has  more  than  realized 
my  anticipations  as  regards  the  i-apidity  and  certainty  of  depositing 
and  returning  the  caloric  on  this  remarkable  system.  The  practical 
adaptation  alcnie  has  presented  difficulties.  In  justice  to  myself,  allow 
me  here  to  remind  you  that  I  have  had  no  funds  at  my  disposal  for 
making  experiments.  The  large  test  engine  intended  for  the  London 
Exhibition  was  built  in  all  essential  features  like  my  original  thirty-inch 
cylinder  engine,  that  being  deemed  complete,  the  difference  being  main- 
ly the  application  of  two  pairs  of  cylinders.  The  engine  of  the  caloric 
ship,  again,  was  a  perfect  copy  of  the  large  test-engine,  dififering  only 
in  size  and  in  having  four  instead  of  two  pairs  of  cylinders.  The  mag- 
nitude of  the  ship  and  the  consequent  heavy  responsibility  forbade  the 
slightest  deviation  from  the  engine  which  had  been  found  to  work  satis- 
factorily. Accordingly,  and  most  unfortunately,  not  a  single  point  was 
gained  by  these  undertakings,  not  a  step  was  made  in  advance.  The 
small  engine  built  at  Springfield  indeed  established  an  important  fact. 
It  corroborated  my  opinion  that  the  inverted  single-acting  cylinders 
were  indispensable  to  practical  success.  It  has  naturally  been  supposed 
by  the  public  that  I  have  had  ample — enormous — funds  at  my  disposal 
for  making  experiments,  and  hence  that  the  resources  of  the  vei-y  prin- 
ciple of  the  new  motor  have  been  exhausted.  How  utterly  at  variance 
with  fact  are  these  suppositions !  Except  as  stated  in  the  small  Spring- 
field engine,  no  funds  have  been  expended  experimentally,  and  therefore 
the  improved  caloric  engine,  with  its  inverted  cylinders  and  wire  regen- 
erator, this  day  stands  where  it  did  when  you  first  witnessed  the  opera- 
tion four  years  ago.  But  though  unavailable  for  practical  purposes  it 
yet  rests  on  immutable  physical  laws  which  by  money,  labor,  and  pa- 
tience will  assuredly  secure  a  great  boon  to  mankind.  There  can  be 
little  doubt  that  850,000,  about  ten  per  cent,  of  the  cost  of  the  caloric 
ship,  expended  in  experiments  would  teach  the  proper  practical  appli- 
cation of  the  wire  system  to  obtain  that  available  force  which  so  far  has 
not  been  properly  realized. 

Truth  and  candor  compel  me  now  to  notice  that  during  the  four 
years  in  which  I  have  labored  unceasingly  in  a  common  cause,  for  a  joint 
benefit,  I  have  been  left  wholly  unsujjijorted  by  those  holding  the  largest 
interest  in  the  patent.  I  have  during  that  period  defrayed  expenses 
and  incurred  liabilities  exceeding  830,000  in  the  prosecution  of  the 
patents  Ln  which  I  hold  very  little  more  than  one-fourth  interest.  I  de- 
sire to  be  distinctly  understood  not  to  abandon  the  invention  in  which 
we  are  mutiially  interested.  I  only  stop  for  want  of  funds — without 
money  I  can  do  nothing,  and  my  only  capital  is  my  intellect  and  my 
time.     Try  what  you  can  do.     I  am  ready  to  work  with  all  my  energies. 


APPLICATIONS   OF  THE  HOT-AIR  PRINCIPLE.         201 

Only  furnish  funds,  and  we  will  show  practically  that  bundles  of  wires 
are  capable  of  exerting  more  force  than  ship-loads  of  coal. 

In  the  mean  time  I  find  myself  on  the  verge  of  ruin,  I  must  do 
something  to  obtain  bread  and  vindicate  to  some  extent  my  assumed  posi- 
tion as  the  opi^onent  of  steam.  Accordingly  I  have  determined  to  return 
to  my  original  caloric  engine.  The  plan  is  less  brilliant — less  startling 
— but  as  it  proved  to  yield  power  practically  twenty  years  ago,  so  it  will 
again.  At  any  rate,  it  cannot  fail  to  be  suflficiently  useful  to  save  its 
author  from  starving.  I  am  sanguine,  you  know,  and  I  therefore  expect 
confidently  to  succeed  on  my  old  field.  If  so,  I  may  yet  take  up  the 
invention  in  which  you  have  an  interest,  on  the  principle  which  compels 
metallic  threads  to  yield  more  force  than  mountains  of  coal.  Thus  I 
may  once  more  devote  individual  means  and  exertions  to  a  common  in- 
terest. 

Thus,  with  many  heartburnings,  Ericsson,  through  force  of 
sheer  necessity,  abandoned  his  efforts  to  further  develop  his 
caloric  system  as  a  universal  motor  to  supersede  steam.  The 
spirit  of  prophecy  was  upon  him,  but  he  prophesied  to  deaf 
ears.  He  believed  then,  as  he  had  believed  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century  at  least,  what  is  now  generally  accepted,  that  the  dis- 
placement of  the  steam-engine  is  essential  to  future  industrial 
progress.  To  the  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science,  Sir  Frederick  Bramwell  declared,  in  1888,  that  those 
who  should  attend  the  centenary  of  the  Association  in  1931 
"  would  see  the  present  steam-engines  in  museums,  treated  as 
things  to  be  respected  and  of  antiquarian  interest,  by  the  en- 
gineers of  those  days,  such  as  were  the  open-topped  steam 
cylinders  of  Xewcomen  and  of  Smeaton  to  ourselves,  and  that 
the  heat  engine  of  the  future  will  probably  be  one  independent 
of  the  vapor  of  water." 

Ericsson  had  not  lost  the  confidence  of  his  friends,  not  even 
of  those  whose  money  had  been  spent  in  his  caloric  ventures  thus 
far,  and  in  the  end  those  who  continued  to  assist  him  had  no 
reason  to  regret  their  confidence.  With  their  help  he  built 
four  little  engines  with  15-inch  cylinders,  costing  $500  or  $600 
apiece,  and  intended  for  lecture-room  models  ;  an  engine  of  16- 
inch  cylinder,  sent  to  France,  and  one  of  thirty  inches  intended 
for  the  Crystal  Palace  Exhibition  in  ISTew  York.  Eight  other 
models  and  test  engines  were  built  at  a  cost  altogether  of  $18,- 
400,  and  patents  for  improvements  were  issued  dated  July  31, 


202  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

1855,  and  December  1-4,  1858,  The  engines  of  the  steamer 
were  covered  by  a  patent  issued  in  1851. 

Within  three  years  of  his  announcement  to  his  associates,  in 
January,  1855,  of  his  determination  to  make  the  caloric  engine 
a  source  of  profit,  Ericsson's  manufacturers  were  able  to  report 
that  the  "  caloric  engine  is  no  longer  a  subject  of  experiment, 
but  exists  as  a  perfect,  practical  machine,  daily  at  work  in 
manufactures  and  diversified  uses."  By  the  end  of  1857  the 
work  of  introducing  the  perfected  engine  had  begun  with  do- 
mestic motors  of  6  and  8-inch  cylinders,  and  seven  large  estab- 
lishments were  at  work  upon  their  construction. 

Next  came  the  12-inch  engine.  This  was  an  excellent 
pumper  and  could  do  light  rotary  work.  It  was  succeeded  by 
the  18-inch  cylinder  engine  with  power  sufficient  to  drive  two 
or  three  printing  presses.  This  was  followed  by  the  24-inch 
cylinder,  capable  of  doing  most  hoisting  work  and  exhibiting 
an  increase  of  power  in  excess  of  the  increased  consumption  of 
fuel.  Finally,  before  the  end  of  1858,  an  engine  with  a 
cylinder  of  thirty-two  inches  in  diameter  was  built  and  set  up 
in  one  of  the  Government  warehouses  in  Xew  York  for  hoist- 
ing work. 

Five  years  before  (1853)  Ericsson  had  agreed  to  build  a 
caloric  engine  of  sixty  horse-power  for  the  Washington  Kavy 
Yard,  but  he  does  not  appear  to  have  been  called  upon  to  do 
so.  Still  earlier  than  this,  in  1848,  Mr.  Sargent  had  suggested 
that  he  should  build  a  fifty  horse-power  engine  for  exhibition 
in  Washington.  To  this  suggestion  he  replied:  "I  must  ob- 
serve in  regard  to  the  caloric  that  if  I  had  any  confidence  in 
justice  at  Washington  I  would  not  hesitate  to  build  the  fiftj- 
horse-power  engine,  but  I  well  know  that  I  am  as  likely  to  be 
cheated  as  patronized  there — you  know  that  too." 

A  thousand  caloric  engines  were  sold  within  two  years,  and 
soon  more  than  three  thousand  were  engaged  in  working  printing 
presses,  and  hoisting-gear  for  warehouses,  docks,  and  ships ;  in 
mines  and  mills  ;  for  pumping,  irrigating  land,  and  supplying 
villages  with  water ;  in  various  operations  on  farms  and  plan- 
tations, and  in  numerous  other  mechanical  employments.  If 
it  was  found  inadequate  to  move  a  great  ocean  steamer  with 
sufficient  speed,  it  was  satisfactorily  tested  in  the  propulsion 


APPLICATIONS   OF  THE  HOT-AIR  PRINCIPLE.         203 

of  boats  and  pleasure  yachts ;  in  short,  wherever  a  limited, 
economical,  safe,  independent,  and  self-managed  motive-power 
was  required,  Ericsson's  caloric  engine  was  in  demand. 

The  Fitchburg  Railroad  of  Massachusetts  reported  that  a 
caloric  engine  belonging  to  them  had  pumped  in  one  year 
1,600,000  gallons  of  water  at  an  expense  of  $25  for  fuel  and 
oil,  and  $25  for  the  time  of  an  engineer.  The  Xew  York  Cen- 
tral Railroad,  which  had  forty-eight  of  the  engines  in  use,  report- 
ed that  they  performed  an  "  incredible  amount "  of  labor  for 
the  "small  quantity  of  fuel  consumed."  One  engine,  at  an  ex- 
pense of  eleven  cents  a  day,  was  doing  the  work  of  five  men 
who  received  $125  a  month,  or  $5  a  day.  An  attempt  was 
made  to  substitute  the  caloric  engine  for  the  horses  then  used 
in  di'awing  their  cars  through  the  city  of  Kew  York.  The 
New  York  Evening  Post,  the  Hartford  Times,  the  Dutch  Me- 
form  Messenger,  and  forty  newspapers  altogether,  employed 
this  motor  and  sounded  its  praises  the  country  over.  Stimu- 
lated by  the  interest  in  caloric,  a  little  paper  called  The  Ericsson, 
and  having  for  its  motto  "  Improve  on  Improvements,"  was 
started  in  1853,  in  Fond  du  Lac,  Wis.,  then  a  place  of  two  or 
three  thousand  inhabitants. 

Caloric  engines  were  also  in  extensive  use  on  the  sugar  plan- 
tations in  Cuba  and  in  the  Southern  United  States ;  they  were 
at  work  abroad  in  England  and  Ireland,  and  especially  in  Swe- 
den, several  establishments  in  this  last  country  having  engaged 
engines  under  license,  the  inventor  with  characteristic  generos- 
ity making  over  the  proceeds  of  his  royalties  in  Sweden  to  his 
sister  living  there. 

At  the  agricultural  fair  of  Ostergothland,  the  most  impor- 
tant province  of  Sweden,  the  first  prize  was  awarded,  in  Janu- 
ary, 1859,  to  an  Ericsson  caloric  engine.  The  Swedish  journals 
particularly  noticed  that  this  engine,  in  its  present  efficient  form, 
differed  altogether  from  that  of  the  "  caloric  ship,"  and  that  it 
resembled  in  essential  features  the  engines  elaborated  and  built 
by  Captain  Ericsson  in  London,  between  the  years  1827  and 
1833.  A  working  model  of  one  of  these  engines  was  carried 
from  London  to  Stockholm  in  the  spring  of  1833,  by  Colonel 
Nils  Ericsson,  brother  of  the  inventor.  It  was  pointed  out  as  a 
remarkable  instance  of  the  correctness  of  first  conceptions  that 


204  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

Captain  Ericsson,  after  spending  thirty  years  of  intense  labor, 
should  find  himself  just  where  he  started.  The  striking  feat- 
ure of  the  new  engine,  aside  from  the  novel  principle  involved, 
was  the  mode  by  which  the  supply-air  was  introduced  into  the 
machine,  and  in  this  it  was  identical  with  the  model  engine  al- 
luded to.  The  singular  achievement,  recognized  bv  engineers, 
of  effecting  the  very  dissimilar  requisite  movements  of  supply 
and  working  pistons  by  one  crank-pin  dates  back  to  1S33,  and 
the  idea  of  placing  the  fire  within  the  cylinder  was  practically 
exemplified  by  Captain  Ericsson  in  London,  as  long  ago  as 
1827. 

The  distinguishing  merits  of  the  engine  were  its  economy, 
portability,  simplicity,  and  non- liability  to  explosion.  Added 
to  this,  is  the  superior  advantage,  in  certain  localities,  of  requir- 
ing no  water.  In  Texas  and  California  it  was  used  for  pur- 
poses of  irrigation  ;  in  Louisiana  for  the  operation  of  cotton- 
gins,  on  account  of  the  diminished  risk  of  fire  and  freedom 
from  explosion.  One  caloric  engine  is  reported  to  have  ex- 
ploded in  Cuba,  but  the  exact  cause  of  the  explosion  was  never 
ascertained. 

The  hot  air  engine  was  found  of  special  value  in  lighthouses. 
It  required  no  water,  and  water  is  liable  to  freeze  in  exposed 
situations  and  to  fail  altogether  in  others.  Its  freedom  from 
the  danger  of  explosion,  the  ease  with  which  it  could  be  man- 
aged by  the  ordinary  light-keeper,  and  the  service  it  rendered 
in  heating  his  quarters  also  commended  it  to  favor,  though  it 
was  more  bulky  than  the  steam-engine,  and  cost  fifty  per  cent, 
more.  Ericsson  examined  carefully  into  the  question  of  apply- 
ing it  to  canal  boats,  but  decided  that  it  had  too  little  power  in 
proportion  to  its  bulk  and  weight. 

For  similar  reasons  his  plans  for  using  it  as  a  motor  for 
horse-cars  were  not  carried  out.  Its  most  ingenious  application 
was  to  the  work  of  compressing  air  so  that  it  could  be  conveyed 
from  a  reservoir  wherever  it  was  needed.  It  was  applied  in 
this  way  by  an  establishment  in  Xew  York  employing  five  or 
six  hundred  hands  with  sewing-machines.  Ericsson  was  very 
much  amused  by  his  experience  with  a  handsome  factory  girl 
who  invited  him  to  a  competition.  She  ran  her  sewing  ma- 
chine with  her  foot,  against  the  caloric  engine,  and  " me," 


APPLICATIONS   OF  THE   HOT-AIR  PRINCIPLE.  205 

said  he,  in  telling  the  story,  "if  she  didn't  beat  me  to  fits." 
But  as  his  engine  could  run  all  day  and  all  night  her  defeat  was 
certain  in  the  end. 

I  find  no  evidence  that  Ericsson  ever  gave  attention  to  the 
study  of  electricity,  though  he  did  invent,  in  1859,  an  "  improve- 
ment in  actuating  and  regulating  the  speed  of  telegraphic  in- 
struments" by  compressed  air,  conveyed  to  the  telegraphic  in- 
struments in  different  rooms  of  a  building,  from  a  central 
motor.  "  Allow  me  to  remind  you,"  said  Ericsson,  in  a  letter 
to  one  of  his  Swedish  friends,  "  that  I  am  an  engineer  and 
designer  rather  than  an  inventor.  Is  the  capacity  for  con- 
struction gained  during  the  experience  of  a  lifetime,  an  in- 
vention ?  Edison,  in  his  ignorance,  discovers  or  invents;  Erics- 
son, acquainted  with  physical  laws,  constructs."  This  was 
not  said  in  any  spirit  of  disparagement  toward  Edison,  for 
whose  talents  and  accomplishments  Ericsson  had  the  liighest 
respect. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE  REGENERATIVE  PRINCIPLE. 

Receipts  for  Patent  Fees. — Report  on  the  Hot-air  Engine  by  Dr.  F. 
A.  P.  Barnard. — Application  of  the  Regenerative  Principle  bv  Sir 
William  Siemens. — Faraday's  Continued  Faith  in  It. — Its  Applica- 
tion to  the  Steam-engine. — Professor  E.  N.  Horsford's  Investigation 
of  the  Caloric  Engine. — Its  Progress  During  Thirty  Years. — Erics- 
son Receives  the  Rumford  Prize. 

ASIDE  from  marine  motors,  Ericsson  expended  altogether 
about  $60,000  upon  twenty-five  test  macliiues  while  per- 
fecting tlie  caloric  engine.  His  accounts  show  that  more  than 
one-half  of  this  snm  was  returned  in  patent  fees  in  a  single 
year,  after  the  invention  was  on  the  full  tide  of  success.  lie 
had  parted  with  interests  in  it  from  time  to  time  until  at  length 
he  retained  only  one-half,  but  his  books  record  the  receipt  of 
§16,555.21  from  this  half  in  1860,  after  deducting  payments 
for  the  cost  of  collecting.  This  shows  a  total  receipt  of  $35,- 
000  for  patent  fees  during  the  year,  and  the  price  received  pre- 
vious to  this  for  partial  interests  indicates  that  the  patent-right 
as  a  whole  was  valued  at  $100,000.  In  a  letter  to  Mrs. 
Stoughton,  dated  October  31,  1870,  Ericsson  said  :  "  Edwin 
[Mr.  Stoughton],  during  conversation  M'lien  he  last  called  at 
36,  did  rae  the  great  injustice  of  hinting  that  I  '  never  com- 
plete anything.'  The  fact  is  that  I  never  leave  an  invention 
while  anything  can  be  done  to  it  within  my  power  (or  within 
the  power  of  man  ?).  Since  he  advised  me  to  abandon  the  ca- 
loric engine  I  have  perfected  fifty-six  inventions,  all  carried 
into  practice.  Upward  of  three  thousand  caloric  engines  have 
been  built  in  the  meantime,  the  patent  having  yielded  more 
than  $100,000.  Do  me  the  favor  to  impress  all  this  on  the 
mind  of  my  unjust  friend." 

The  attempt  to  apply  the  hot-air  engine  to  the  purpose  of 


THE  REGENERATIVE  PRINCIPLE. 


207 


navigation  was  economically  a  failure,  but  as  a  means  of  edu- 
cation to  Ericsson  it  was  worth  far  more  than  it  cost,  as  the 
sequel  will  show.  Even  after  this  failure  was  recorded,  Robert 
Hunt,  F.R.S.,  in  his  "  Supplement  to  Ure's  Dictionary  of  Arts, 
Manufactures,  and  Mines,"  declared  that  "  we  may,  notwith- 
standing this  result,  safely  predict,  from  the  investigations  of 
Messrs.  Thomson  &  Joule,  that  the  expansion  of  air  by  heat 
will  eventually,  in  some  conditions,  take  the  place  of  steam  as  a 
motive  power." 

Sir  William  Siemens  told  the  British  Association  m  Au- 
gust, 1882,  that  "  the  gas  or  caloric  engine  combines  the  condi- 
tions most  favorable  to  the  attainment  of  maximum  results,  and 
it  may  reasonably  be  supposed  that  the  difficulties  still  in  the 
way  of  their  application  on  a  large  scale  will  gradually  be  re- 
moved." "  Before  many  years  have  elapsed,"  he  said  further, 
"we  may  find  in  our  factories  and  on  board  our  ships  engines 
with  a  fuel  consumption  not  exceeding  one  pound  of  coal  per 
effective  horse-power  per  hour,  in  which  the  gas-producer  takes 
the  place  of  the  somewhat  complex  and  dangerous  steam-boiler. 
The  advent  of  such  an  engine,  and  of  the  dynamo  machine, 
must  mark  a  new  era  of  material  progress  at  least  equal  to  that 
produced  by  the  introduction  of  steam-power  in  the  early  part 

of  our  century." 

Sir  William  spoke  from  experience,  for  he  had  spent  many 
years  of  his  life  in  seeking  to  apply  the  regenerative  principle 
which  so  fascinated  Ericsson,  and  was  a  firm  believer  in  its  ef- 
fectiveness.    Commencing  his  studies  into  the  application  of 
heat  fifteen  years  after  Ericsson,  he  had  the  advantage  of  the 
sounder  theories  concerning  its  nature  established  by  the  in- 
vestigations   of   Joule   in   England  and  Mayer  in   Germany, 
during  the  years  from  1842  to  1819.     Siemens  contended  that 
EricsfeX)n^s  partial  failure  with  his  respirator  or  "regenerator" 
was  due  to  a  mistake  in  its  application,  resulting  from  an  accept- 
ance of  the  mistaken  theory  of  the  nature  of  heat,  current^  at 
that  time,  and  a  consequent  neglect  to  provide  sufficient  heating 
apparatus.     This  is  also  the  explanation  of  Dr.  Frederick  A. 
P.  Barnard,  LL.D.,  late  president  of  Columbia  College,  New 
York.     Speaking  of  Ericsson's  early  engine,  with  the  "  regene- 
rator," Dr.  Barnard  says : 


208  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

"  The  engine,  it  will  be  seen,  was  remarkably  simple  in  con- 
struction. It  also  performed  very  well  in  practice,  so  far  as  its 
performance  was  merely  a  question  of  mechanics.  But  it 
failed  because  the  heating  arrangements  were  inadequate  to  the 
demand  made  upon  them.  Mr.  Ericsson  did  not  expect  to  be 
dependent  on  his  furnaces  for  the  supply  of  more  than  a  mod- 
erate fraction  of  the  heat  which  each  successive  charge  of  air 
was  to  receive.  It  was  his  anticipation  that  the  regenerators 
would  serve  to  transfer  so  large  a  quantity  from  each  charge  to 
the  next  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  provide  for  a  little  more 
than  the  always  inevitable  loss  by  mere  radiation.  This  antici- 
pation was  not  realized  and  in  fact  could  not  be,  since  no  ac- 
count was  taken  of  the  large  amount  of  heat  necessarily  trans- 
ferred into  work.''  * 

At  the  time  of  his  invention  of  the  hot-air  engine  Ericsson 
held  the  opinion  that  equal  increments  of  heat  produced  equal 
increments  of  power,  whatever  the  medium  nsed,  and  that  the 
resulting  force  suffers  no  diminution  ;  so  that  the  effects  may  be 
reproduced  indefinitely  by  transfer  from  one  medium  to  another, 
or  from  one  portion  of  the  same  medium  to  another  portion. 
Whatever  the  loss  of  heat  in  an  engine  from  radiation  and  con- 
duction there  was,  according  to  this  theory,  no  loss  from  the  ex- 
ertion of  power.  Rumford's  experiment  in  boiling  water  with 
heat  generated  by  friction  dates  back  to  1798,  but  the  doctrine 
of  the  mutual  convertibility  of  heat  and  mechanical  action,  or 
of  heat  as  a  mode  of  motion,  was  only  gradually  establishing 
itself  while  Ericsson's  thoughts  were  occupied  with  his  inven- 
tions, and  it  was  not  until  18G2  that  Professor  Tyndall  com- 
menced the  series  of  lectures  that  did  so  much  to  make  the 
theory  generally  known. 

In  a  paper  read  before  the  London  Institution  of  Civil  En- 
gineers, session  of  1883-84,  on  "  Heat  and  its  Mechanical  Appli- 
cation,''Professor  Fleeming  Jenkin,  F.P.S.,  said  of  Sir  "William 
Siemens :  "  The  fact  that  such  a  man  spent  so  many  years  of 
his  life  in  endeavoring  to  adapt  the  regenerator  to  the  internal 
combustion  engine  served  to  show,  what  I  believe  to  be  certain- 

•  Paris  Universal  Exposition,  18G7,  Machinery  and  Processes  of  the  Indus- 
trial Arts  and  Apparatus  of  the  Exact  Sciences.  By  Frederick  A.  P.  Barnard, 
LL.D.,  U.  S.  Commissioner. 


THE  KEGENERATIVE  PRINCIPLE.  209 

]j  the  truth,  that  in  that  idea  lies  the  future  of  internal  com- 
bustion in  general ;  that  by  the  application  of  the  regenerator 
we  shall  be  able  to  so  much  lower  the  temperature  of  rejec- 
tion as  in  a  marked  manner  to  increase  the  efficiency  of  the 
engines." 

The  fact  that  such  a  man  as  Ericsson  gave  so  many  years 
of  his  life  to  the  study  of  this  expedient,  and  that  he  believed 
in  it  to  the  end,  has  equal  significance. 

Sir  William  Siemens  applied  the  regenerative  principle  to 
the  steam  engine,  taking  out  his  first  patent  for  his  improve- 
ments in  this  line  December  22,  1847.  His  biographer  tells  us 
that  he  did  not  claim  the  regenerative  principle  as  an  original 
discovery,  but  ''it  was  looked  upon  by  engineers  as  unsound  in 
principle,  and  its  application  had  very  little  beneficial  result. 
Mr.  Siemens  saw  not  only  its  theoretical  correctness,  but  its 
great  practical  value,  and  the  wide  success  it  afterward  at- 
tained fully  justified  his  views.  The  regenerative  principle 
was  undoubtedl}^  sound,  and  he  had  devoted  ten  or  twelve  of 
the  best  years  of  his  life  to  its  application.  During  this  time 
he  had  the  support  of  many  eminent  engineers,  the  practical 
aid  of  two  of  the  best  manufacturing  firms  in  the  country,  and 
the  funds  of  a  powerful  commercial  association.  Neither  theo- 
retical knowledge,  nor  practical  experience,  nor  ingenuity,  nor 
skill,  nor  money,  nor  perseverance,  nor  influence  was  wanting. 
But  in  spite  of  their  promised  advantages,  the  regenerative 
steam-engine  would  not  supplant  the  simple  machine  of  Watt."  * 

The  final  result  was  the  application  of  the  Siemens  regener- 
ative furnace  to  mechanical  operations,  for  which  a  high  tem- 
perature is  required,  such  as  smelting  and  glass  and  pottery 
manufacture. 

During  the  years  of  experimental  research  devoted  to  this 
improved  engine,  Siemens  met  with  the  difficulties  that  had 
assailed  Ericsson  in  the  way  of  "  leaks,  destruction  of  working 
parts,  undue  consumption  of  fuel,  imperfect  action  and  so  on." 
In  the  Siemens'  regenerator  the  exhaust  steam  deposits  its  heat, 
to  be  taken  up  by  the  cold  water  on  its  way  from  the  condenser 
to  the  "  hot  well."  It  was  found  that  the  gases  escaping  from 
the  furnace  at  a  temperature  of  4,000°  F.  could  be  cooled 
*  Life  of  Sir  William  Siemens.  By  William  Pole.  Vol.  i.,  p.  79. 
14 


210  LIFE   OF  JOUN   ERICSSON. 

down  in  a  regenerator  to  between  200'^  and  400°.  Siemens 
provides  for  tlie  passage  of  heated  vapor,  or  vapor  and  steam, 
and  atmospheric  air  through  regenerators  of  fire  brick  laid 
with  open  spaces.  Of  his  furnace  Dr.  Siemens  said  :  "  The 
greatest  heat  that  can  be  produced  by  direct  combustion  of 
coke  and  air  is  about  4,000°  F.  But  with  my  regenerative  fur- 
nace I  should  have  no  difficulty  in  going  up  to  10,000°,  in  fact, 
to  any  degree  the  material  composing  the  furnace  can  be  made 
to  stand." 

The  most  intense  terrestrial  combustion  that  we  can  com- 
mand. Professor  Tyndall  tells  us,  is  that  of  oxygen  and  hydro- 
gen, and  the  temperature  of  the  pui-e  oxy-hydrogen  flame  is 
8,061°  C.  =  14,542°  F.  The  sun  Siemens  considered  to  be  a  gi- 
gantic specimen  of  one  of  his  own  regenerative  gas  furnaces, 
lie  likened  its  action  to  that  of  a  centrifugal  blowing  fan, 
revolving  with  enormous  velocity  and  drawing  in  upon  its  polar 
surfaces  the  gaseous  matters  circulating  in  a  highly  attenuated 
state  in  space  ;  subjecting  them  to  enormous  friction  and  ex- 
pelling them  at  the  solar  equator  at  a  temperature  estimated  by 
Ericsson  at  4.035.584°  F.,  to  commeivce  anew  the  cycle  of 
change. 

The  entrance  of  Siemens  upon  a  line  of  investigation  fol- 
lowed by  Ericsson  fifteen  j'cars  before  him  is  interesting  testi- 
mony to  the  fascinations  of  the  regenerative  theory.  Michael 
Faraday  seems  never  to  have  lost  faith  in  it,  for  the  last  lecture 
he  ever  delivered  was  on  the  Siemens  regenerative  furnace. 
This  was  June  20,  1SG2,  or  nearly  thirty  years  after  his  at- 
tention had  first  been  directed  to  the  principle  involved  in  it  by 
Ericsson's  invention  of  1833.  As  early  as  1838  Ericsson  had 
conducted  a  series  of  experiments  with  a  view  to  adapting  the 
regenerative  principle  to  the  steam-engine,  as  Siemens  did  later 
on.  Though  the  result  hoped  for  was  not  accomplished,  it  was 
found  that  most  valuable  use  could  be  made  of  the  heat  then 
wasted  in  condensing  the  steam,  and  the  surface  condenser 
was  the  result.  The  latest  patent  for  this  was  taken  out  in  the 
United  States  in  1849,  and  it  is  described  in  Ericsson's  "  Con- 
tributions to  the  Centennial  Exhibition,''  chapter  xxix. 

The  extent  to  which  the  efficiency  of  the  marine  engine  has 
been  increased  by  this   device  is   illustrated  by   an  example 


THE   KEGENERATIVE   PEINCIPLE.  211 

quoted  by  Mr.  W.  T.  Harvey,  before  the  Engineering  Section 
of  the  Bristol,  England,  Naturalists'  Society,  showing  that  a 
vessel,  the  Juno,  saved  nine  and  a  half  tons  of  coal  per  voyage, 
or  nine  per  cent.,  by  a  change  from  a  jet  condenser  to  the  sur- 
face condenser,  the  engines  working  at  the  same  pressure,  thirty 
pounds,  indicating  the  same  horse-power,  1605,  and  making  the 
same  speed,  Itt.l  knots. 

In  1887  the  German  Bureau  of  Statistics  estimated  the 
power  of  steam-engines  then  at  work  as  the  equivalent  of  forty- 
six  million  horses  or  a  thousand  million  men,  double  the  work- 
ing population  of  the  earth.  Four-fifths  of  this  power  has 
been  brought  into  action  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  centuiy, 
or  since  Ericsson  terminated  his  labors  upon  the  caloric  engine. 
In  his  "Contributions"  (p.  443)  Ericsson  tells  us  that  "  steam 
engineers,  finding  by  the  extraordinary  demand  for  caloric 
engines  that  very  moderate  power  was  a  great  desideratum, 
have  perfected  the  steam-motor  until  it  almost  rivals  the  ca- 
loric engine  in  safety  and  adaptability ;  consequently,  tlie 
demand  for  caloric  engines  has  been  greatl}^  diminished  of  late. 
Yet  this  motor  can  never  be  superseded  by  the  steam-en- 
gine, since  it  requires  no  water,  besides  being  absolutely  safe 
from  explosion.  There  are  innumerable  localities  in  which  an 
adequate  quantity  of  water  cannot  be  obtained,  but  where  the 
necessities  of  civilized  life  call  for  mechanical  motors;  hence 
the  caloric  engine  may  be  regarded  as  an  institution  insepar- 
able from  civilization." 

In  a  letter  written  to  Professor  E.  IST.  Horsford,  then  Kum- 
f ord  Professor  in  Harvard  University,  Ericsson  said  : 

New  York,  January  19,  1861, 
Sir  :  Your  letter  to  Mr.  Sargent,  which  indicates  that  you  are  in- 
vestigating the  origin  and  development  of  the  caloric  engine,  induces 
me  to  present  to  you  the  enclosed  table  relating  to  the  compression  of 
atmospheric  air.  The  relations  of  volume,  temperature,  and  pressure 
expressed  in  this  table  you  will  find  somewhat  diiferent  from  the  result 
of  Regnault's  and  Joule's  investigations  on  the  subject — I  will  not 
question  the  theoretical  accuracy  of  their  deductions  but  I  claim  that 
my  table,  as  it  records  what  actually  takes  place  during  compression  on 
a  large  scale,  is  of  more  value  to  practical  engineering.  It  is  proper  to 
add  that  the  leading  facts  exhibited  in  this  table  were  established  by 
the  writer  long  before  the  commencement  of  the  investigation  of  the 


212  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

distinguished  savants  alluded  to.  The  trial  of  the  caloric  engine  of 
1833  clearly  proved  that  a  compression  of  ten  pounds  to  the  square 
inch  above  the  atmospheric  jjressure  caused  an  elevation  of  temperature 
of  more  than  80°.  At  that  time,  you  will  remember,  Dalton's  theory 
prevailed,  which  admitted  only  50'  increase  of  temjieratm-e  for  reducing 
atmospheric  air  to  half  volume.  It  is  proj^er  further  to  observe  that 
the  inclosed  table,  which  I  request  that  you  will  do  me  the  honor  to  ac- 
cept, is  founded  on  actual  results  produced  by  long-continued  compres- 
sion with  cylinders  varying  from  thirty  to  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight 
inches  diameter. 

I  annex  a  very  brief  explanation,  as  you  will  comprehend  the  nat- 
ure of  the  table  at  a  glance. 

I  am,  sir,  with  great  respect,  your  obedient  servant, 

J.  Ericsson. 

Professor  Horsford. 

Tracing  the  progress  of  the  caloric  engine  during  a  period 
of  thirty  years,  from  its  first  suggestion  to  the  final  completion 
of  the  work  upon  it  in  1858,  we  find  that  it  originated  in  the 
flame  engine,  described  in  the  paper  sent  to  the  Institution  of 
Civil  Engineers, London, in  theyear  1827.  This  had  two  cylinders 
with  a  piston  in  each  cylinder.  In  1837  a  fly-wheel  and  re- 
generators were  added,  and  in  1839  two  pistons  were  put  into 
one  cylinder,  one  a  supply  piston  and  the  other  a  working 
piston,  and  a  device  was  added  for  compressing  the  air  at  the 
instant  of  its  passage  from  the  supply  cylinder  to  be  heated. 
Next,  through  a  series  of  experimental  engines,  the  grand  thirty- 
inch  engines  of  the  caloric  ship  were  evolved.  In  1855  the 
supply  piston  was  changed  so  as  to  work  in  eqidlihr'io  at  the 
time  when  the  working  piston  was  nearly  stationary,  and 
in  1856  was  added  tlie  quickened  motion  at  the  conclusion  of 
the  inward  stroke  of  the  supply  piston.  Finally,  in  1858, 
came  a  device  to  keep  the  lubricated  surface  of  the  cylinder 
at  a  temperature  below  that  at  which  the  oil  suffers  injury,  by 
turning  upon  it  an  alternating  blast  of  cold  air.  Thus  was  an- 
swered the  objection  that  the  hot-air  engine  could  never  be 
made  successful  because  of  the  impossibility  of  securing  the 
lubricants  from  destruction.  The  inij-enious  combination  of 
movements  in  this  engine  so  excited  the  admiration  of  Pro- 
fessor Horsford  as  to  lead  him  to  say :  "  It  is  difficult  to  con- 
ceive of  a  higher  theoretical  and  mechanical  triumph." 


THE  REGENEEATIVE  PEINCIPLE.  213 

The  engine  consisted  of  a  single  horizontal  cylinder.  To 
one  end  of  this  fire  was  applied,  and  at  the  other  end  were  two 
pistons  alternately  approaching  and  receding  from  each  other, 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  produce  internal  pressure  during  the 
outward  stroke  of  the  outer  piston.  Both  pistons  were  con- 
nected to  the  same  crank-pin,  and  the  peculiar  and  contrary 
motions  of  the  two  pistons  were  produced  by  lever  movements. 
The  solution  of  the  problem  of  imparting  motion  to  the  two 
pistons  required  compliance  with  nine  distinct  conditions,  and 
the  result  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  mechanical  concep- 
tions of  our  time.  "  It  is  as  impossible,"  said  Professor  Horsford, 
"  to  go  into  detail  with  each  of  Captain  Ericsson's  air  engines 
as  it  would  be  to  review  the  discussions  of  the  caloric  engine  in 
which  Ericsson,  Eankine,  Joule,  l^apier,  Regnanlt,  Barnard,  Nor- 
ton and  a  crowd  of  other  writers,  French,  German,  English,  and 
American,  have  taken  part.  No  one  who  comprehends  the 
action  of  Stirling's  earlier  engine,  or  of  Ericsson's  of  1833 
or  1837 — which,  with  the  regenerator  attached,  would  do  an 
amount  of  duty  to  which  it  was  utterly  inadequate  with  the 
regenerator  detached  ;  or  of  the  action  of  the  caloric  engine  of 
1858,  or  of  Wilcox's,  which  with  the  escape  and  supply  ports 
closed,  and  the  air  of  the  working  cylinder  returned  alternately 
to  and  received  from  the  supply  cylinder,  will  run  for  a  long 
time  after  the  fire  has  been  withdrawn — can  now  doubt,  that 
npon  the  main  point,  the  function  of  the  regenerator,  the  claim 
of  Ericsson  had  been  sustained." 

Wilcox's  engine  was  a  reproduction,  in  1859-60,  with  some 
modification  in  details,  of  Ei'icsson's  engine  of  1837  with  fly- 
wheel and  regenerator.  The  earlier  caloric  engine  of  1833  was 
the  first  of  a  series  on  the  different  plan  of  alternately  heating 
and  cooling  a  body  of  compressed  air  witliout  the  use  of  a  re- 
generator. "In  comparing  the  earlier  with  the  later  engines," 
said  Professor  Horsford,  "  there  is  a  marked  development  of 
the  capabilities  of  the  principle,  and  corresponding  progress  in 
invention."  * 

*  These  quotations  are  from  the  address  accompanying  the  presentation  by 
the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences  of  the  Rumford  premium  of  a 
gold  and  silver  medal  "  awarded  to  John  Ericsson  for  his  improvement  in  the 
management  of  heat,  particularly  as  shown  in  his  caloric  engine  of  1858." 


214  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

If  Ericsson's  caloric  engine  did  not  realize  all  his  sanguine 
expectations,  it  certainly  accomplished  a  great  work,  and  its  in- 
ventor had  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  he  alone  had  met 
with  any  considerable  success  in  the  attempt,  so  frequently 
made  during  the  previous  half  century,  to  substitute  another 
motor  for  the  steam-engine.  Canada,  by  a  special  act  of  Par- 
liament, granted  Ericsson  the  privilege  of  a  patent  for  his  ca- 
loric engine,  "as  if  the  said  John  Ericsson  had  been  a  subject  of 
Her  Majesty,  and  resident  of  this  province."  In  announcing 
the  result  in  a  letter  from  Toronto,  May  21, 1S61,  a  friend 
said  :  "  In  the  passing  of  this  bill  nothing  gave  me  more  pleas- 
ure than  the  just  tribute  paid  to  your  talents  and  enei-gy.  The 
Legislature  generally  is  opposed  to  special  legislation,  and  have 
made  an  exception  in  your  case.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that 
no  other  man  would  have  obtained  it  but  yourself,  and  the 
ground  of  it  was  your  untiring  zeal  in  the  cause  of  science, 
and  the  great  benefit  the  whole  world  derive  from  the  exer- 
cise  of  your  talent  and  energy.  For  once,  at  any  rate,  merit 
has  carried  the  day." 

In  his  address  in  ISSS,  before  the  British  Association,  al- 
ready referred  to,  Sir  Frederick  Bramwell  said : 

The  working  of  beat  engines  without  the  intervention  of  water,  by 
the  combustion  of  gases  arising  from  coal  and  water,  is  now  not  merely 
an  established  fact,  but  a  recognized  and  undoubted  commercially  eco- 
nomical means  of  obtaining  motive  power.  Such  engines,  developing 
from  one  to  forty  horse-i30wer,  and  worked  by  ordinary  gas  supplied  by 
gas-mains,  are  in  most  extensive  use  in  i)rinting-works,  hotels,  clubs, 
theatres,  and  even  in  large  piivate  houses,  for  the  working  of  dynamos 
to  supply  electric  light.  But,  looking  at  the  wonderful  petroleum  indus- 
try, and  at  the  multifarious  products  which  are  obtained  from  the  crude 
materials,  is  it  too  much  to  say  that  there  is  a  future  for  motor-engines 
worked  by  the  vapor  of  some  of  the  more  highly  volatile  of  these  pro- 
ducts— true  vapor — not  a  gas,  but  a  condensable  body  capable  of  being 
worked  over  and  over  again?  Numbers  of  such  engines,  some  of  as 
much  as  four  horse-power,  are  now  running,  and  are  apparently  giving 
good  results — certainly  excellent  results  as  regards  the  compactness  and 
lightness  of  the  machinery. 

Ericsson  was  a  pioneer  in  this  field,  and  his  caloric  engine 
opened  the  way  for  the  coming  revolution,  not  only  by  its  direct 
agency,  but  still  more  effectively  in  the  way  that  most  useful  in- 


THE   EEGENEEATIVE  PRINCIPLE.  215 

ventions  accomplish  their  object,  by  stimnlating  further  inven- 
tion and  suggesting  improvement  in  the  line  of  the  original 
investigation.  In  spite  of  the  wonders  accomplished  by  modern 
machinery,  serious  and  well-founded  objections  are  urged  against 
it  on  ethical  grounds,  for  its  tendency  is  to  destroy  the  individ- 
ual initiative  and  to  lessen  independence  of  character.  For 
thousands  of  little  work-shops,  each  the  centre  of  moral  in- 
fluences out  of  which  have  developed  our  best  types  of  citizen- 
ship, we  have  substituted  a  single  great  manufactory  where  the 
principle  of  the  interchangeability  of  parts  is  applied  to  the 
artisan  as  well  as  to  his  products.  Each  workman  is  one  of  a 
thousand,  so  shaped  to  pattern  that  any  one  may  be  substituted 
for  any  other.  The  factor  of  individuality,  so  essential  to  man- 
ly development,  is  thus,  so  far  as  possible,  eliminated. 

ISTo  man  understood  this  tendency  of  modern  mechanical 
development  better  than  Ericsson.  "  The  close  observer  of 
labor-saving  machines,"  he  said,*  "  is  well  aware  that  of  late 
years  the  legitimate  bounds  have  been  passed,  and  that  we  are 
rapidly  encountering  the  dangers  of  intellect-saving  machines, 
by  introducing  mechanical  devices  for  effecting  everything 
which  hitherto  has  been  the  result  of  the  healthful  combination 
of  intellect  and  muscular  effort.  At  this  moment  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  human  beings  are  employed  in  working  a  treadle 
or  turning  a  crank,  vacant  spectators  of  what  their  muscles  ef- 
fect ;  not  the  least  tax  on  their  intellect.  Unfortunately,  the 
number  of  persons  thus  occupied  is  being  augmented  with  a 
rapidity  only  known  to  those  who  study  the  records  of  mechan- 
ical invention.  It  is  needless  to  speculate  on  the  effect  upon 
our  race  which  this  dispensing  wath  intellect,  and  the  substitu- 
tion of  monotonous  muscular  labor,  will  produce  in  course  of 
time.     The  evil  is  manifest. 

"  It  will  be  asked,  '  is  there  no  remedy  ? '  A  motor  of  such 
properties  that  it  can  follow  the  thousand  mechanic  denizens 
into  their  corners  would  obviously  meet  the  difficulty.  It  is 
claimed  that  the  caloric  engine  possesses  these  properties.  It 
works  as  well  when  made  to  exert  the  power  of  one  man  as 
that  of  twenty.  It  is  actuated  by  the  air  of  the  surrounding 
atmosphere  and  requires  no  engineer  ;  it  can  be  managed  by 
*  Letter  to  the  editor  of  the  London  Times,  May  23,  1860. 


216  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

any  person  of  common  intelligence  ;  is  wholly  free  from  dan- 
ger ;  the  cost  of  fuel  which  it  consumes  amounts  to  less  than 
live  per  cent,  of  the  manual  labor  employed  to  exert  equal 
force."  Again  he  says:  "The  steam-engine  requires  water, 
which  prevents  its  use  in  millions  of  instances  in  which  we  want 
motors  to  relieve  human  drudgery.  We  cannot  trust  that  dan- 
gerous agent  to  the  care  of  our  wives  and  children,  but  the  ca- 
loric engine  we  safely  may.  We  can  turn  the  key  to  the  room 
which  contains  it,  and  the  humble  artisan  may,  without  appre- 
hension, ply  his  tool  while  this  harmless  servant  turns  the 
crank  and  cooks  his  food." 

Five  years  later,  when  his  triumphs  in  other  fields  had 
made  his  name  universally  known,  Ericsson  said  (November, 
1865) :  "  The  satisfaction  with  which  I  place  my  head  on  the 
pillow  at  night,  conscious  of  having  through  my  little  caloric 
engine  conferred  a  great  boon  on  mankind — though  the  full 
importance  of  that  boon  will  not  be  understood  until  the  lapse 
of  perhaps  another  century — is  far  greater  than  any  satisfaction 
the  production  of  an  engine  of  war  can  give.'* 

"  The  division  and  subdivision  of  functions,"  says  Prince 
Krapotkin,  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  representatives  of  the 
modern  socialistic  element,  "  have  been  pushed  so  far  as  to 
divide  humanity  into  castes  almost  as  firmly  established  as 
those  of  old  India.  First  the  broad  division  into  producers 
and  consumers ;  little-consuming  producers  on  the  one  hand, 
little-producing  consumers  on  the  other  hand.  Then  amid 
the  former,  a  series  of  subdivisions,  the  manual  worker  and 
the  intellectual  worker,  sharply  separated  ;  and  agricultural 
laborers  and  workers  in  manufactures.  Amid  little-producing 
consumers  are  numberless  minute  subdivisions,  the  modern 
ideal  of  a  workman  being  a  man  or  a  woman,  a  boy  or  a  girl, 
without  the  knowledge  of  any  handicraft,  having  no  conception 
whatever  of  the  industry  in  which  he  or  she  is  employed,  and 
only  capable  of  making  all  day  long  and  for  a  whole  life,  the 
same  infinitesimal  part  of  something;  from  the  age  of  thirteen 
to  that  of  sixty  pushing  the  coal  cart  at  a  given  spot  of  the 
mine,  or  making  the  spring  of  a  penknife,  or  the  eighteenth 
part  of  a  pin.  The  working  classes  have  become  mere  ser- 
vants to  some  machine  of  a  given  description  ;  mere  flesh-and- 


THE  REGENERATIVE  PRINCIPLE.  217 

bone  parts  to  some  immense  machinery  ;  having  no  idea  about 
how  or  why  the  machinery  is  performing  its  rhythmical  move- 
ments. Skilled  artisanship  is  swept  away  as  a  survival  of  the 
past  which  is  condemned  to  disappear.  For  the  artist  who  for- 
merly found  aesthetic  enjoyment  in  the  work  of  his  hands,  is 
substituted  the  human  slave  of  an  iron  slave." 

It  was  against  this  tendency,  constituting  so  great  a  danger 
to  modern  society,  that  Ericsson  struggled,  and  with  intelligent 
purpose,  as  the  letter  I  have  quoted  shows.  He  had  a  profound 
sense  of  the  dignity  of  labor  ;  his  early  years  had  been  spent 
among  working  people,  and  those  of  the  very  best  class ;  and 
though  he  found  but  little  leisure  for  the  polite  interchanges  of 
"  society  "  and  had  as  little  taste  for  them,  his  heart  and  his 
hand  were  always  open  to  "  plain  people." 

One  hundred  years  ago  when  Benjamin  Thompson  was 
made  a  Count  of  the  "Holy  Roman  Empire"  he  chose  for  his  ti- 
tle the  name  of  the  place,  Rumford  (now  Concord),  N.  H.,  from 
which  he  fled  sixteen  years  before  to  escape  the  coat  of  tar  and 
feathers  in  preparation  for  him,  because  of  his  supposed  hostil- 
ity to  the  local  sentiment  of  opposition  to  the  rule  of  England. 
Among  the  numerous  proofs  he  gave  of  magnanimous  forget- 
fulness  of  this  episode  in  his  history  is  to  be  numbered  the 
gift  of  $5,000  to  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences 
to  found  a  prize,  bearing  his  name,  for  the  most  important  dis- 
coveries in  light  and  heat. 

Though  the  prize  was  founded  in  1796,  it  was  not  until  forty- 
three  years  after  that  the  Academy,  in  1839,  found  anyone  who 
was  in  its  judgment  worthy  of  the  award.  Then  the  gold 
and  silver  Rumford  medals  were  bestowed  upon  Robert  Hare, 
of  Philadelphia,  whose  subsequent  wanderings  in  the  unscien- 
tific ways  of  spiritualism  have  not  diminished  his  earlier  credit 
as  a  chemist  and  philosopher.  To  Hare,  the  prize  was  granted 
in  recognition  of  his  invention  of  the  oxy-hydrogen  blow-pipe, 
and  his  improvement  in  galvanic  apparatus.  Another  interval  of 
twenty-three  years  elapsed  before  it  was  proposed  to  bestow  the 
prize  a  second  time,  though  the  fund  had  meantime  increased 
to  nearly  thirty  thousand  dollars,  and  a  still  larger  sum,  the  pro- 
ceeds of  its  investment,  had  been  expended,  under  authority  of 
the  State  Court,  in  ways  not  contemplated  in  the  original  gift. 


218  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

In  1860  the  subject  of  bestowing  the  Ruraford  prize  upon 
John  Ericsson  was  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  Acad- 
emy. The  question  as  to  his  title  to  it  was  referred  to  the 
standing  committee  of  the  Academy  having  this  matter  in 
charge.  At  the  five  hundred  and  sixth  meetino:  of  the  Acad- 
emy,  held  two  years  later,  April  6,  1862,  Joseph  Lovering, 
Hollis  Professor  of  Mathematics  and  Natural  Philosophy  at 
Harvard  College,  from  a  majority  of  the  Rumford  Commit- 
tee presented  the  following  report : 

The  Eumford  Committee,  having  examined  the  subject  of  hot-air  en- 
gines, and  the  recent  improvement  in  their  construction  made  in  Amer- 
ica, ask  leave  to  report  as  follows  : 

The  Rumford  Committee  does  not  recommend  that  the  Academy 
should  award  the  Rumford  premium  for  the  alleged  recent  improve- 
ments of  Mr.  Ericsson  in  the  hot-air  engine,  nor  for  his  engine  as  at 
present  constnicted. 

MoRRiiiii  "Wyhan,  Joseph  Loveking,  Joseph  Wini/Ock. 

Cambridge,  April  8,  1863. 

On  behalf  of  himself  and  Daniel  Treadwell,  a  former  Rum- 
ford Professor,  E.  X.  Ilorsford,  presented  the  following  : 

The  minority  of  the  Rumford  report : 

That  they  dissent  from  the  opinion  of  the  majority,  in  that  they  be- 
lieve the  improvements  in  the  caloric  engine  of  Mr.  Ericsson  which  he 
brought  out  in  1858  are  such  as  to  entitle  him  to  the  Rumford  Medal. 

They  see  the  evidence  of  high  inventive  talent,  of  patient  thought 
and  prolonged  and  jjerseveriug  experimental  research,  iu  the  practical 
solution  on  a  large  scale  of  the  various  problems  underlying  the  hot- 
ab*  engine,  especially  in  the  compact  arrangement  of  the  suj^ply  and 
working  pistons,  the  telescopic  tube,  the  fire-pot  and  the  regenerator  in 
a  single  cylinder,  thereby  economizing  heat  and  space ;  in  the  device 
fox'  protecting  the  lubricating  material  of  the  packing  of  the  working 
piston,  by  exposing  it  at  each  stroke  to  the  current  of  entering  cold  air ; 
and  in  the  system  of  cranks,  rock-shafts,  bars  and  their  connecting  rods 
by  which  the  varied,  complicated,  but  necessary  motions  of  the  supply 
and  working  pistons  are  regulated  and  connected  with  each  other  and 
the  fly-wheel. 

The  minority  recommend  that  the  Rumford  Medal  be  awarded  to 
Mr.  Ericsson  for  his  improvements  in  the  management  of  heat,  particu- 
larly as  shown  in  his  air  engine  of  185S. 

E.  N.  HoBsroBD,  D^NiKii  Treadwelii. 

Cambridge,  April  8,  1862. 


THE   REGENERATIVE  PRINCIPLE.  219 

Thus  were  two  professors  of  mathematics,  one  of  Harvard 
and  the  other  of  the  JSTaval  Academy,  and  one  physician,  ar- 
rayed in  judgment  against  two  Rumford  Professors,  both  cele- 
brated for  inventive  capacity  and  experience.  Who  should 
decide  ?  The  two  reports  were  received  and  the  question  of 
choosing  between  them  was  discussed  by  their  authors,  the 
merits  of  the  hot-air  engine  being  the  subject  of  controversy. 
The  discussion  was  continued  at  an  adjourned  meeting  on  April 
22,  1862,  and  again  at  a  meeting  held  May  13th,  when  Professor 
Louis  Agassiz,  Drs.  Jacob  Bigelow  and  Charles  Pickering  of 
Boston,  Benjamin  Peirce,  Professor  of  Astronomy  and  Mathe- 
matics at  Harvard,  and  Messrs.  Washburn  and  Guy  joined  in 
the  discussion.  This  controversy  between  practical  invention 
and  theoretical  criticism  was  so  earnest  and  determined  that 
it  was  decided  to  refer  the  question  to  the  annual  meeting 
for  settlement.  Finally,  at  an  adjourned  annual  meeting,  held 
on  June  1,  1862,  on  motion  of  Professor  Horsford,  seconded 
by  Professor  Treadwell,  this  resolution  was  finally  adopted  : 

Resolved  that  the  Eumford  premium  be  awarded  to  John  B.* 
Ericsson  for  his  improvements  in  the  management  of  heat,  particularly 
as  shown  in  his  caloric  engine  of  1858. 

The  account  here  given  of  the  award  of  the  Rumford  Medal 
to  John  Ericsson  in  1862  somewhat  anticipates  this  event  in 
the  order  of  chronology,  yet  it  belongs  naturally  to  a  period 
occupied  with  studies  destined  to  be  laid  aside  for  a  time,  and 
only  for  a  time,  in  deference  to  the  demands  of  the  most  im- 
perative public  obligations. 

*  The  resolution  is  thus  recorded  in  the  published  minutes  of  the  Acad* 
emy. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

PERSONAL    HISTORY. 

Ericsson's  Associates  and  Friends. — His  Interest  in  European  Politics. — 
He  Meets  witli  an  Accident. — Submits  to  a  Surgical  Operation. — 
His  Physical  Condition. — His  Acquaintance  with  Professor  J.  J. 
Mapes. — His  Favorite  Authors. — His  Mathematical  and  Linguis- 
tic Acquirements. — His  Relations  with  Mr.  Delamater. — Personal 
Anecdotes. — His  Physical  Vigor. — Hopes  to  Live  a  Centuiy. 

WHEN  we  pass  beyond  the  limits  of  Ericsson's  workshop, 
we  find  very  little  to  record  concerning  his  movements 
during  the  twenty  years  succeeding  his  removal  to  New  York, 
in  November,  1839.  For  a  portion  of  this  time  his  associate, 
Mr.  John  O.  Sargent,  was  residing  in  Washington,  and  inter- 
course with  him  was  maintained  by  a  correspondence  devoted 
chiefly  to  the  dry  details  of  business.  Succeeding  Mr.  Sargent 
as  Ericsson's  legal  adviser  came  Mr.  Edwin  "Wallace  Stoughton, 
whose  connection  with  the  important  patent  cases  of  Goodyear 
and  others,  soon  after  his  admission  to  the  bar  in  1840,  had 
brought  him  into  prominence  in  this  line  of  practice.  The  ac- 
quaintance with  Mr.  Stoughton,  begun  in  1850,  continued  until 
his  death  in  1882.  Ericsson's  accounts  show  that  Mr.  Stough- 
ton not  only  invested  to  a  moderate  extent  in  his  caloric  ven- 
tures but  helped  him  to  tide  over  some  of  liis  pecuniary  diffi- 
culties while  at  work  on  his  hot-air  engine  in  1855-56.  Their 
relations,  originally  those  of  attorney  and  client,  extended 
to  personal  friendship  and  social  intercourse.  Mr.  Stoughton 
was  fond  of  his  joke,  and  though  Ericsson  was  less  given  to 
jesting  himself,  he  enjoyed  humor  in  others,  and  when  they 
were  together  a  jolly  laugh  would  upon  occasion  well  up  from 
the  depths  of  the  capacious  lungs  that  filled  his  expansive 
chest.  He  would  occasionally  drop  in  upon  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Stoughton  for  an  evening's  chat.  European  politics  were 
among  the  topics  of  discussion  during  the  Crimean  war,  and  he 
gave  vigorous  expression  to  the  sympathy  he  felt,  in  common 


PERSONAL   HISTORY.  221 

with  his  countrymen,  in  tlie  efforts  of  the  allies  to  weaken  the 
power  of  Russia.  As  Ericsson  was  a  Knight  of  the  Order  of 
Vasa  he  was  familiarly  spoken  of  by  the  Stoughtons  as  "  Sir 
John,"  and  among  his  letters  are  found  numerous  notes  from 
Mr.  Stoughton  thus  addressed.  That  he  occasionally  respond- 
ed in  the  same  vein  is  shown  by  this  letter : 

*'  Sir  John  Ericsson  "  presents  his  compliments  to  Lord  Counsellor 
Stoughton,  and  regrets  iuexi^ressibly  that  previous  engagement  will 
prevent  his  having  the  honor  of  meeting  the  Judges  of  the  Court  of  Ap- 
peal, Tuesday  next. 

If  anything  could  add  poignancy  to  the  regret  which  Sir  John  feels 
at  being  prevented  from  putting  his  feet  under  the  mahogany — more 
properly  the  oak — of  the  Lord  Counsellor,  it  is  the  fact  that  such  a  rare 
selection  of  the  Learned's  feet  will  be  under  the  same  on  this  momen- 
tous occasion. 

Hash  Square,  April  6,  1867. 

Lord  Counsellor  Stoughton. 

Sometimes  Ericsson  would  take  a  Thanksgiving  dinner 
with  his  friends,  the  Stoughtons,  and  this  New  England  festi- 
val appears  to  have  been  the  only  one  that  received  his  hom- 
age. It  was  on  Thanksgiving  day  in  1854  that  he  lost  the 
second  finger  of  his  right  hand  while  superintending  some  work 
at  the  Delamaters',  and  he  had,  ever  after,  a  superstition  con- 
cerning the  observance  of  the  day.  If,  as  sometimes  happened, 
he  lost  sight  of  the  calendar  it  was  only  necessary  for  his  sec- 
retary to  hold  up  an  admonitory  finger  with  "  Remember, 
Captain  I  "  and  the  answer  came  promptly,  "  True,  I  forgot ;  no 
work  on  Thanksgiving."  On  the  day  he  found  such  occasion  to 
remember,  Ericsson  was  overseeing  some  work  at  Delamater's. 
Noticing  one  of  the  men  reacliing  forth  to  steady  a  vibrating  con- 
necting-rod, he  shouted,  "  Be  careful !  you  will  lose  your  hand  !  " 

Involuntarily  his  own  hand  went  out,  and  his  finger  dropped 
upon  the  floor.  Picking  it  up,  the  owner  turned  to  his  friend, 
Delamater,  who  stood  by,  exclaiming,  "  See,  Harry,  what  I  have 
done  !  "  Dropping  the  severed  finger  into  his  pocket,  and  ty- 
ing a  piece  of  tape  around  the  stump  to  stop  the  hemorrhage, 
he  got  into  a  carriage,  drove  home,  and  sent  for  a  surgeon. 
When  the  doctor  came  a  further  amputation  was  found  necessary. 
Refusing  to  take  ether,  the  wounded  man  held  out  his  maimed 
hand,  and  calmly  looked  on  while  the  surgeon  operated. 


222  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

That  evening,  a  friend,  Professor  Mapes,  called,  alarmed  by 
the  reports  he  had  received  of  the  accident.  He  found  Erics- 
son busied  at  his  drawing-board  with  the  pencil  in  his  left 
hand.  Answering  the  anxious  inquiries  concerning  his  condi- 
tion, he  said,  quietly,  "  I  expect  to  be  obliged  to  use  my  left 
hand  hereafter,  and  thought  it  best  to  commence  practising 
with  it." 

This  anticipation  was,  fortunately,  not  realized,  for  the 
hand  did  its  owner  good  service  for  thirty -five  years  longer. 

About  this  time  Ericsson  was  greatly  disturbed  by  the  ap- 
pearance of  an  angry  swelling  on  the  right-hand  side  of  his  jaw. 
This  proved  to  be  a  malignant  pustule.  The  physicians  con- 
sulted agreed  in  the  opinion  that  an  operation  was  necessary, 
but  to  this  Ericsson  objected  because  of  the  disfigurement  that 
would  result,  declaring  that  he  would  much  rather  die  than  be 
so  scarred.  Finally,  a  young  doctor  was  found  who  was  confi- 
dent of  his  ability  to  cure  without  the  knife.  This  was  Dr. 
Thomas  M.  Markoe,  then  an  assistant  of  Dr.  Delafield,  of  Xew 
York,  and  since  one  of  the  best-known  practitioners  in  New 
York.  Dr.  Markoe's  treatment  resulted  so  satisfactorily  that 
his  patient  soon  recovered,  and  he  naturally  conceived  a  warm 
regard  for  the  young  physician. 

The  partner  of  Mr.  Stoughton  was  Mr.  "William  Dodge,  the 
Bon-in-law  of  Ericsson's  old  friend,  Professor  James  J.  Mapes, 
and  the  husband  of  Mrs.  Mary  Mapes  Dodge,  the  editor  of  the 
>iS'^.  J^icholas  Magazine,  New  York.  Professor  Mapes  was  an 
inventor,  as  well  as  chemist  of  reputation,  and  a  civil  engineer 
holding  high  rank  as  an  expert  in  patent  cases.  The  acquain- 
tance with  him  began  soon  after  Ericsson's  removal  from  Eng- 
land, and  their  relations  were  cordial  and  intimate. 

The  professor's  house  was  one  of  the  very  few  where  the 
busy  engineer  was  accustomed  to  visit,  and  he  was  a  favorite  in 
the  household,  the  children  running  to  meet  him  when  his  well- 
known  ring  was  heard  at  the  door.  By  the  family  of  Professor 
Mapes  Ericsson  is  remembered  as  a  most  genial  and  kindly 
man,  who  had  an  exceptional  faculty  for  interesting  himself  in 
what  interested  others.  Professor  Mapes  was  accustomed  to 
propound  to  him  his  chemical  theories,  especially  one  he  held 
concerning  the  "  progression  of  the  primaries,"  and  for  this  at 


PEESONAL  HISTORY.  223 

least  he  always  found  a  sympathetic  listener  in  Ericsson,  and 
one  whose  quick  apprehension  and  intelligent  comment  were  of 
service  in  clarifying  his  own  ideas.  Ericsson  being  a  foreigner 
by  birth,  his  thorough  command  of  English,  and  his  exact  use 
of  words  and  terms  was  a  subject  of  remark.  It  could  hardly 
be  otherwise,  however,  with  a  man  so  precise  in  all  things,  after 
a  daily  experience  for  over  twenty-five  years  with  a  language 
he  had  learned  in  his  youth. 

When  Professor  Mapes  changed  his  residence  to  Newark, 
1^.  J.,  Ericsson  extended  his  visits  to  that  place,  a  rare  instance 
upon  his  part  of  enterprise  in  the  line  of  social  accomplish- 
ment. His  calls  were  usually  made  on  Sunday  afternoon,  and 
he  was  fond  of  discussing  philosophy  with  Professor  Mapes, 
who  was  accustomed  to  say  that  Ericsson  was  the  only  man  of 
whose  intellectual  ability  he  stood  in  awe.  The  professor  con- 
sidered himself  an  adept  in  mathematics,  but  acknowledged  his 
master  in  Ericsson,  who  was  one  of  the  few  in  ]^ew  York  at 
that  day  familiar  with  the  "  Mecanique  Celeste  "  of  La  Place. 
Two  copies  of  La  Place's  great  work  were  to  be  found  in  Erics- 
son's library ;  one  a  five-volume  edition  in  the  original  French, 
published  "An  YII"  (1797),  when  the  author  was  a  plain  citi- 
zen of  the  Kepublic,  the  other  Bowditch's  translation,  pub- 
lished in  1829,  and  bearing  the  name  of  "  Marquis  de  La 
Place"  on  the  title-page.  The  last  was  Ericsson's  working 
copy,  and  it  shows  the  marks  of  study,  it  being  his  custom  to 
underscore  what  he  wished  to  recall,  with  a  red  or  black  lead- 
pencil  and  mark  a  reference  to  it  on  the  fly-leaf. 

Ericsson  also  kept  among  his  favorite  authors  Bishop  Hors- 
ley's  edition  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton's  complete  works,  the  first 
two  volumes  printed  in  1779.  The  treatise  "  Philosophige  Nat- 
uralis  Principia  Mathematica  "  in  the  third  volume  was  one  of 
his  favorite  studies,  and  he  always  found  delight  in  reading  it. 
In  the  fourth  volume  he  has  marked  some  of  Newton's  obser- 
vations on  the  nature  of  light,  and  his  declaration  of  the  ab- 
surdity of  the  theory  of  innate  gravity,  and  more  especially  the 
discourse  on  light  and  color.  In  this  Newton  declares  that 
though  he  has  argued  the  corporeity  of  light,  it  was  "  without 
any  absolute  positiveness."  Under  this  statement  Ericsson  has 
drawn  a  line  in  red  pencil  and  appended  to  his  reference  to 


LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

several  pages  he  has  marked  along  the  margin  the  words  "  very 
interesting."  Xewton's  remarks  concerning  the  propagation  of 
light  by  vibrations  in  the  ether  attracted  his  particular  atten- 
tion, for  the  reason  that  he  had  some  theories  of  his  own  con- 
cerning the  ethers,  holding  that  there  were  several.  On  this 
subject  he  used  to  engage  in  lively  discussions  with  Professor 
Mapes.  Ericsson  was  a  most  entertaining  talker  upon  any  sub- 
ject that  occupied  his  attention,  and  he  was  unusually  fluent 
in  speech,  few  men  exceeding  him  in  rapidity  of  utterance. 
He  read  French  but  could  not  speak  it.  He  knew  something 
of  Spanish  and  Greek  and  could  get  along  in  these  languages 
with  the  help  of  a  dictionary.  That  he  had  some  knowl- 
edge of  German  is  indicated  by  this  extract  from  a  letter  to 
Mr.  Epes  Sargent  concerning  a  translation  by  his  brother, 
Ericsson's  special  friend : 

My  Dear  Sargekt:  The  great  poet  having  kindly  forwarded  his 
"Last  Knight  "  I  am  going  to  discharge  the  pleasing  duty  of  thanking 
and  complimenting  him.  The  knowledge  of  the  German  displayed  in 
his  translation  amazes  me.  I  have  "Der  letzte  Ritter"  before  me  and 
find  with  admiration  that  in  description  your  brother  actually  excels  the 
oiiginal ;  but  as  German  sentiment  cannot  be  rendered  into  English, 
the  spiritual  part  falls  a  little  short,  though  not  much.  John  has  im- 
mortalized himself. 

Ericsson's  library  was  limited  to  a  few  hundred  volumes, 
nearly  all  on  scientific  and  professional  subjects ;  the  three  or 
four  novels  appearing  among  them  had  evidently  strayed  out 
of  place  or  belonged  to  some  assistant,  hungering  for  a  bit  of 
fiction  to  relieve  so  much  grim  reality.  His  reading  was  al- 
most entirely  confined  to  works  connected  with  his  special 
studies,  the  leading  engineering  and  scientific  periodicals,  and 
two  or  three  Swedish  papers.  Speaking  once  of  the  journals 
he  received  from  Sweden,  he  said  :  "It  is  a  perfect  enjoyment 
to  read,  in  my  leisure  moments,  these  papers.  I  always  feel 
then  as  if  I  were  in  my  dear  Sweden.  You  don't  know,  per- 
haps, that  I  never  read  Swedish  books." 

Captain  Ericsson  disliked  to  be  called  a  mathematician, 
though  he  was  proud  of  the  title  of  geometrician.  He  was  ac- 
customed to  say  that  the  oi-dinary  mathematician  had  no  rea- 
soning power,  or  he  would  not  disguise  his  processes  in  symbols 


PERSONAL   HISTORY. 


225 


that  nobody  but  one  of  his  own  class  could  understand.  It  was 
his  theory  that  articles  upon  mechanical  subjects  should  be  so 
written  that  a  school-boy  could  understand  them.  The  symbols 
are  only  required  in  the  process  of  the  higher  mathematics, 
such  as  those  of  astronomy.  A  letter  addressed  to  one  of  his 
clients  by  Ericsson  shows  at  once  his  methods  of  calculation 
and  his  opinion  upon  the  subject  of  confusing  ideas  with  sym- 
bols.    He  said : 

New  York,  September  12,  1864. 
My  Deak  Sir  :  The  proper  thickness  of  a  square  cast  iron  plate  will 
be  obtained  by  the  following : 

Multiply  the  side  in  feet  (or  decimals  of  a  foot)  by  ^  of  the  pressure 
in  pounds,  and  divide  by  850  times  the  side  in  inches.     The  quotient  ia 
the  square  of  the  thickness  in  inches. 
60" 

3,600  Dx  301b.  =     12M2P  =  27  000 
4 

5  X  27,000  =  15^!^  =  2.64  ^"2764  =  1.62" 
51,000  

thickness  of  a  square  plate 
60  X  60"  with  30  lb.  press- 
ure. 
5  feet. 

850  X  60  =  51,000 

For  circular  plate. 
Multiply  \\  of  the  diameter  in  feet  by  i  of  the  pressure  on  the  plate 
in  pounds.     Divide  by  850  times  \\  of  the  diameter  in  inches. 


5  X  11  =  3.92  X  21,202  =  83,111  =  2.02  V  2.02  = 


14  850  X  47.1  =  41,035 

1.42"  thickness  of  60"  disk  and 
30  lb.  pressure. 


area  2,827  x  30  lb.  =  84,810  =  21,202 


diameter 


60  X  11  =  47.1" 
14 


Yours  very  truly, 

J.  Ebicsson. 
A  great  mathematician  would  cover  half  a  dozen  sheets  with  figurea 
to  solve  the  above  problem. 
15 


226  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

With  Mr.  Cornelius  H.  Delamater,  tlie  engine  manufac- 
turer and  proprietor  of  the  Phcenix  Foundry,  Xew  York, 
Ericsson  continued  in  intimate  relation  for  a  longer  time  than 
with  any  other  man.  Mr,  Delamater  was  a  clerk  in  this  foun- 
dry when  it  began  work  on  the  engines  of  the  Princeton^  in 
January,  1S4:2,  and  his  acquaintance  with  Ericsson  grew  out  of 
the  latter's  relations  to  this  establishment.  He  had  the  great- 
est confidence  in  Ericsson's  ability,  and  the  highest  admiration 
for  his  character,  and  when  fortune  favored  him  was  always 
ready  to  assist  in  carrying  on  his  enterprises.  Their  friendship 
was  founded  upon  mutual  respect  and  mutual  advantage,  and 
though  their  relations  became  at  times  somewhat  strained, 
owing  to  Ericsson's  hasty  temper,  there  was  a  solid  foundation 
of  good  will  to  settle  down  upon  after  the  tempest  had  blown 
over. 

Mr.  Delamater s  interest  in  the  success  of  their  joint  under- 
takings, as  well  as  good  will  toward  his  associate,  would  at 
times  tempt  him  upon  the  dangerous  ground  of  criticism. 
Ericsson  was  a  severe  censor  of  his  own  work,  and  as  he  had 
exhausted  criticism  before  his  work  reached  the  machine  shop, 
he  was  not  accustomed  to  invite  any  favors  in  that  line.  It 
was  not  absolutely  impossible  to  convince  him  that  he  was 
wrong,  but  the  successful  attempt  came  as  near  as  possible  to 
a  solution  of  the  lyceum  problem  as  to  the  result  of  an  encoun- 
ter between  an  immovable  obstacle  and  an  irresistible  force. 
Doubts  and  suggestions  already  disposed  of  in  his  own  mind  so 
often  returned  to  him  through  the  fears  of  others,  that  he  be- 
came accustomed  to  treat  criticism  with  indifference. 

On  one  occasion  when  Ericsson  was  finally  convinced  that  a 
piece  of  mechanism  he  had  spent  much  time  upon  was  defect- 
ive, he  sent  it  flying  across  the  room  and  against  the  mantel- 
piece, to  the  serious  disturbance  of  its  offending  internal  econo- 
my. This  was  the  only  announcement  he  made  as  to  his  con- 
clusion concerning  it.  He  demanded  the  most  rigid  observance 
of  every  detail  in  the  drawings  provided  for  the  guidance  of 
his  workmen,  and  they  were  hugely  delighted  when  they  found 
in  one  case  where  they  had  been  furnished  with  designs  for  a 
piece  of  mechanism  requiring  the  introduction  of  gas,  that  "  the 
old  man  "  had  omitted  to  include  the  vent-hole  in  his  otherwise 


PERSONAL  HISTORY.  227 

complete  drawing.  Such  instances  of  oversight  were  so  rare  as 
to  be  a  subject  of  comment  forever  after.  Generally  Ericsson 
was  quite  safe  in  saying,  as  he  was  accustomed  to  do  when  sug- 
gestions were  offered  to  him,  "  Have  you  my  drawing  ? " 
"  Then  follow  that."  Mr.  Watson,  the  editor  of  the  Engineer, 
New  York,  tells  this  story  of  him  : 

Charles  Nelson,  at  one  time  draughtsman  in  the  Old  Novelty 
Works  in  this  city,  had  charge  of  the  engines  of  the  Columbia,  designed 
by  Captain  Ericsson,  and  when  the  engines  were  done  it  was  customary 
in  those  days  to  get  the  length  of  the  piston-rod  from  the  engine  itself, 
so  that  there  would  be  no  mistake  in  cutting  the  keyway  on  the  piston- 
rod.  Nelson  was  down  in  the  Columbia's  cylinder  with  a  baton  about 
fourteen  feet  long,  getting  clearances,  etc.,  when  Captain  Ericsson  came 
on  board  by  chance  and  stood  right  over  him.  He  roared  out :  "  What 
are  you  doing  there,  sir  ?  " 

"  Getting  the  length  of  the  piston-rod.  Captain  Ericsson." 

"  Is  it  not  on  the  drawing,  sir  ?  " 

"Yes,  sir." 

"Then  why  do  you  come  here  with  sticks,  sir?  Go  and  get  the 
length  from  the  drawing,  su-.  I  do  not  want  you  to  bring  sticks  when 
the  drawing  gives  the  size." 

Charles  Bernard,  an  old  New  York  engineer,  recently  told  us  of 
another  similar  instance  of  Ericsson's  accuracy.  John  Mars  was  putting 
in  the  engines  of  the  old  Quinnehai(g,  and  one  of  the  details  was  a  small 
connection  as  crooked  as  a  dog's  hind  leg.  Mars  tried  to  get  it  in  its 
place  for  a  long  time,  but  failed,  and  finally  went  to  Ericsson  and  told 
him  the  rod  could  not  be  got  in.     Ericsson  said  : 

•'  Is  it  right  by  the  drawing?' 

"Yes,  sir,"  said  Mars. 

"  Then  it  will  go  in,"  said  Ericsson  ;  iind  when  Mars  tried  it  again  it 
did  go  in. 

Mr.  Watson  further  says  of  Captain  Ericsson : 

An  incident  as  to  his  leniency  and  consideration  for  others  may  be 
related  here.  The  foundry  foreman  of  a  certain  marine  engine  works  in 
this  city  said  he  once  made  a  large  casting  for  a  surface  condenser  for 
Captain  Ericsson,  and  it  was  so  peculiar  in  some  respects  that  the  pro- 
prietors of  the  work  and  the  foreman  of  the  foundry  would  not  guaran. 
tee  it.  They  feared  it  would  crack  by  shrinkage  strains  across  the  cor- 
ners. Ericsson  said  he  would  guarantee  it,  but  when  it  was  cast  and 
had  thoroughly  cooled,  it  was  found  to  be  cracked  just  where  it  was  ex- 
pected to.     Ericsson  was  notified,  and  came  down  to  look  at  it. 

"  Can  you  make  another  one  with  what  you  know  now  ?"  said  Erics 
son.     The  foreman  said  he  thought  he  could. 


228  LIFE   OF   JOHN  ERICSSON. 

"Make  me  another  one,"  said  Ericsson,  and  that  was  all  there  waa 
about  it. 

Incidents  like  these,  varying  only  in  kind,  could  be  related  end- 
lessly, for  in  his  long  life  of  constant  professional  activity  he  was  al- 
ways coming  in  contact  with  workmen  and  others,  and  was  always  the 
principal  actor. 

Ericsson  was  unquestionably  the  foremost  man  of  his  time  in  hia 
profession,  and  while  he  was  careful  of  his  reputation  and  jealous  of 
his  standing  as  an  engineer,  he  was  not  jealous  of  individuals  or  others 
in  the  profession,  unless,  indeed,  they  went  out  of  their  way  to  stir  him 
up  ;  then  he  was  relentless.  "We  have  heard  Captain  Ericsson  mention 
many  well-known  American  engineers  and  their  work  ;  he  always  gave 
credit  where  it  was  due. 

Ericsson  was  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  practical  details 
of  machine  work,  but  it  was  his  custom  to  give  the  most  exact 
directions  for  carrying  out  his  plans  and  leave  their  execution 
to  others.  When  on  rare  occasions  he  did  interfere,  it  so  dis- 
turbed the  routine  of  the  work-shop  that  he  lost  more  than  he 
gained.  lie  was  not  a  "  mechanic,"  as  Stockton  called  him,  but 
an  engineer ;  that  is  "  one  devoted  to  the  science  and  the  art  of 
utilizing  the  forces  and  materials  of  nature,"  and  directing  those 
who  handle  machinery  or  the  tools  of  some  craft.  The  only  ma- 
chines he  employed  himself  were  those  of  the  scientific  investi- 
gator ;  the  only  tools,  those  of  the  designer  and  draughtsman. 

Like  most  men  of  aggressive  convictions,  Ericsson  was  more 
fond,  when  talking  upon  subjects  he  understood,  of  presenting 
his  own  ideas  than  of  listening  to  what  was  said  in  reply,  for 
every  man,  as  Euripides  says,  "occupies  himself  with  that  in 
which  he  finds  himself  superior."  lie  was  never  given  to  gos- 
sip of  any  sort,  although  sufficiently  vigorous  at  times  in  his 
denunciation  of  those  who  angered  him.  To  the  ordinary  top- 
ics of  conversation  he  was  indifferent.  The  policies  of  Gov- 
ernment, especially  as  related  to  questions  of  armament,  occu- 
pied his  thoughts,  but  with  politics  in  the  lesser  sense  he  never 
concerned  himself,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  he  ever  voted  during 
the  forty  years  of  his  American  citizenship.  He  prided  him- 
self upon  his  physical  vigor,  as  he  had  good  reason  to  do.  It 
displeased  him  to  note  the  signs  of  advancing  age,  and  when 
gray  hairs  announced  the  unwelcome  advent  of  his  declining 
half  century,  he  invoked  the  aid  of  art  to  deceive  time.     He 


PERSONAL   niSTOET.  229 

made  no  concealment  of  the  fact,  however,  explaining  to  his 
friends  that  he  did  not  dye  for  their  benefit  but  to  gratify  his 
own  aesthetic  taste.  lie  disliked,  he  said,  to  see  his  gray  locks 
reflected  from  his  mirror. 

The  barber,  who  came  once  a  week,  on  one  occasion  so  over- 
emphasized his  art  that  Ericsson,  while  entertaining  a  visitor 
soon  after,  found  himself  the  object  of  unusually  critical  obser- 
vation. When  the  visitor  had  bidden  him  good-by  he  ques- 
tioned his  assistant  as  to  the  cause  and  was  told  that  the  barber 
had  transformed  what  nature  intended  to  be  a  Scandinavian 
brown  into  an  oriental  black,  making  a  most  comical  alteration 
in  the  appearance  of  the  great  engineer,  and  doing  violence  to 
the  scriptural  declaration  that  we  cannot  make  one  hair  black 
or  white.  So  the  barber  was  sent  for  and  kept  at  work  until 
Ericsson  was  restored  to  himself. 

lie  would  occasionally  visit  the  theatre  and  that  he  was  not 
indifferent  to  the  charms  of  histrionic  art  is  shown  by  a 
little  circumstance.  When  Fanny  Kemble  was  giving  her 
readings  in  this  country  in  1858,  she  applied  through  a  friend 
to  Ericsson  asking  him  to  design  for  her  a  reading-desk  to 
meet  certain  requirements.  When  it  came  to  the  question  of 
paying  for  it,  the  gallant  Captain  wrote  a  polite  letter  to  the  in- 
termediary, asking  Mrs.  Kemble  to  accept  the  service,  as  an 
expression  of  his  high  appreciation  of  her  contributions  to  the 
art  of  dramatic  interpretation. 

To  this  Mrs.  Kemble  replied  saying :  "  I  wish  you  would 
present  my  compliments  to  Captain  Ericsson  and  tell  him  I  am 
very  grateful  to  him  for  his  great  courtesy  and  kindness.  His 
letter  will  be  treasured  among  my  collection  of  valued  auto- 
graphs and  my  table  preserved  and  honored  among  my  goods 
and  chattels  as  the  most  magnificent  piece  of  furniture  could 
never  deserve  to  be." 

Delving  in  a  dusty  heap  of  engineering  designs  and  calcula- 
tions, I  came  upon  a  paper  which  seems  to  shine  out  from  the 
mass  like  a  diamond  from  its  kindred  carbon  of  the  coal-heap. 
It  was  a  list  of  forty  Swedish  songs  in  Ericsson's  delicate  hand- 
writing, which  was  as  dainty  as  a  woman's  when  he  wrote  care- 
fully. There  were  two  copies  of  the  list.  One  contained  the 
titles  in  Swedish  j  the  other  the  Swedish  names  with  a  transla- 


230  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

tion  in  Euglish.  Among  the  titles  were  such  as  these  :  "  And 
"Woman's  Destiny  is  Certain,"  "  Resolve  and  Act  are  One  with 
Woman,"  ''  Who  are  You,  My  Girl  ?  "  '*  It  is  so  Sweet  in 
Spring,"  "  Young  Lady,  in  Your  Springtime,"  "  1  Possess  Such 
a  Ilandsome  Wife,"  '•  Give  Me  while  yet  My  Wife,"  "  And 
Sunset  Parts,"  "  O  Robert,  Cruel  is  Our  Parting,"  "  Bacchus 
Calls  His  Lamb." 

"  E'en  in  our  ashes  burn  the  wonted  fires."  Here  was  the 
busy  engineer  who  had  governed  his  life,  as  nearly  as  possible 
to  all  appearances,  by  the  exact  calculations  of  machine  work, 
turning:  aside,  as  he  neared  the  end  of  his  third  score,  to  revive 
his  recollections  of  the  songs  he  had  no  doubt  sung  in  the  days 
when  he  indited  sonnets  to  the  Northern  Lights  from  under  the 
shadows  of  the  Jemtland  forests.  It  would  be  a  great  mistake 
to  infer  from  this  sober  narration  of  engineering  achievement 
and  scientific  study  that  John  Ericsson  had  any  sympathy  with 
the  chemist,  who  refused  to  marry  because  his  analysis  of  wom- 
an detected  in  her  composition  nothing  beyond  a  combination 
of  sundry  salts  with  water.  His  reasons  for  living  solitary,  in- 
stead of  following  the  admonition  to  "  dwell  together  in  fami- 
lies," were  sufficient,  but  they  by  no  means  implied  indifference 
to  woman.  That  he  had  a  high  appreciation  of  the  obligations 
of  marriage  is  shown  by  this  letter  addressed  to  a  young  bride- 
groom : 

Netv  York,  July  20,  1860. 

My  Deae  Sm :  Your  notice  was  too  short  to  admit  of  mj  being 
present  at  the  very  interesting  ceremony  at  Christ  Cliurcli  last  Wednes- 
day. A  reluctant  absentee  on  the  solemn  occasion,  allow  me  now  to 
offer  my  cordial  congratulations.  Not  simply  do  I  hope  that  you  may 
enjoy  all  happiness,  which  married  life  under  favorable  circumstances  is 
so  well  calculated  to  bestow.  I  am  dehghted  to  find  that  aU  commend 
your  choice,  yet  I  cannot  refrain  from  giving  you  as  a  friend  advice  not 
to  expect  too  much  of  your  wife.  Remember  well  that  you  will  yourself 
fail  to  meet  the  just  expectations  of  her  whose  destiny  is  now  entwined 
with  your  own,  and  whose  happiness  in  life  is  now  so  completely  at  your 
mercy.  Pardon  this  phrase,  which  I  select  with  a  friend's  anxious  desire 
that  you  should  duly  contemplate  your  high  responsibility  at  the  very 
outset  of  your,  so  to  speak,  new  expei-ience, 

Yours  truly, 

John  Ebicsson. 


PERSONAL   HISTORY.  231 

Ericsson  bad  a  hope  that  he  might  prolong  his  days  well  on 
to  the  completion  of  a  centur}',  but  as  to  that  be  bad  no  anxiety. 
His  only  wish  was  to  retain  to  the  end  his  capacity  for  work, 
since  with  him  idleness  was  misery.  He  bad  no  resources  out- 
side of  bis  absorbing  devotion  to  work,  and  as  is  the  case  with 
all  men  whose  lives  are  prolonged,  those  in  whom  his  deepest 
affections  centred  nearly  all  passed  away  before  him.  Domes- 
tic relations  he  could  hardly  have  been  said  to  have  bad  at  all. 
In  his  way  an  admirer  of  women,  he  was  never  willing  to  meet 
them  on  their  own  terms,  for  he  regarded  them  rather  in  the 
light  of  a  diversion  for  his  leisure  than  as  companions  in  the 
serious  matters  of  life.  The  experiences  of  his  early  manhood 
are  bidden  in  obscurity,  for  he  remorselessly  destroyed  nearly 
all  the  letters  and  documents  relating  to  his  career  previous  to 
the  year  1861,  when  bis  success  was  established.  Here  and 
there  comes  a  flash  of  light  to  reveal  his  characteristics,  but 
nowhere  do  I  find  any  indication  of  a  purely  sentimental  or  in- 
tellectual relation  to  the  opposite  sex.  He  was  kindly,  be  was 
generous,  be  was  considerate,  and  in  bis  relations  to  his  kin 
most  affectionate,  as  his  letters  show,  but  the  attempt  to  accom- 
modate himself  to  feminine  sensibilities  assumed  with  him  a 
place  among  the  less  important  duties  of  life. 

As  some  of  Ericsson's  most  intimate  friends  were  lawyers, 
it  is  evident  that  he  bad  no  prejudice  against  the  members  of 
the  legal  profession.  Yet  bis  experience  with  courts  bad  not 
predisposed  him  in  favor  of  professional  methods  and  the  end- 
less worry  and  expense  attending  the  defence  of  his  rights 
against  infringement  had  given  him  a  dread  of  litigation.  On 
one  occasion  when  a  steamship  company  refused  to  pay  bis 
modest  bill  of  five  hundred  dollars,  for  showing  them  bow  to 
remedy  a  defect  in  one  of  their  engines  which  was  beyond  the 
skill  of  their  own  engineers,  he  was  persuaded  to  bring  suit. 
All  went  well  until  he  received  the  necessary  summons  to  ap- 
pear as  a  witness.  To  this  he  refused  to  respond,  and  let  his 
case  go  by  default  rather  than  submit  himself  to  the  badgering 
of  .the  lawyers.  Had  the  rule  of  ancient  Greece  prevailed,  and 
suitors  been  required  to  plead  their  own  causes,  be  would  have 
won  almost  any  case,  for  he  was  a  master  of  persuasive  dis- 
course upon  any  subject  that  be  understood.     He  was  more  than 


232  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

once  the  victim  of  the  ignorance  concerning  mechanical  ques- 
tions prevailing,  especially  in  former  years  when  courts  and 
juries  were  more  easily  misled  in  technical  matters  by  resem- 
blances tliat  did  not  indicate  perfect  similarity.  When  Ericsson 
came  to  Xew  York  Professor  Mapes  was  almost,  if  not  quite, 
the  only  consulting  engineer  in  the  city,  and  professional 
knowledge  had  hardly  passed  beyond  the  period  when  a  phys- 
ician was  considered  competent,  after  a  week's  study  in  a  li- 
brary, to  design  the  capitol  at  Washington,  and  when  it  was 
easy  for  a  man  who  knew  a  little  more  than  his  neighbors  to 
persuade  them  that  he  knew  everything. 


CHAPTER  Xy. 

ESrCEPTION   OF  THE  MONITOE. 

Ericsson's  Preparation  for  His  Great  Work. — His  Stmggles  with  Profes- 
sional Jealousy. — Dealings  with  the  Navy  Department  Previous  to 
1861. — Presents  Two  Sub-aquatic  Systems  of  Attack  to  the  Emperor 
of  the  French. — History  of  Armored  Vessels. — Outbreak  of  the  Civil 
War. — Prompt  Action  of  the  Confederate  Authorities. — Ericsson 
Offers  His  Services  to  President  Lincoln. — Is  Called  to  Washing- 
ton.— Dramatic  Interview  with  the  Board  on  Armor-Clads. — The 
Monitor  Ordered. 

*'  Tjl  ACH  thing,  both  in  small  and  in  great,  fulfilleth  the  task 
J-J  which  destiny  has  set  down,"  and  it  is  only  when  we 
discard  the  theory  of  chance  or  accident,  that  the  history  of  such 
a  man  as  Ericsson  becomes  clear  to  us.  Then,  through  all  the 
seemingly  tangled  web  of  circumstance,  we  are  able  to  trace  the 
evidences  of  over-ruling  purpose,  and  to  see  how  incidents,  ap- 
parently without  connection,  stand  in  orderly  relations  one  to 
another  as  essential  parts  of  an  intelligent  design,  Ericsson's 
early  training  on  the  Gota  Canal ;  his  studies  of  artillery  and 
of  military  engineering  in  the  camps  of  Jemtland ;  his  obser- 
vation of  the  behavior  of  raft-like  structures  in  the  storms 
sweeping  over  the  Swedish  lakes  ;  his  experience  in  the  difficult 
and  but  little  understood  work  of  marine  construction,  in  the 
handling  of  men  and  choice  of  material ;  his  unceasing  studies 
into  the  possibilities  of  applying  old  principles  in  new  ways, 
and  his  constant  effort  to  emancipate  himself  from  the  slavery 
of  routine — all  these  were  to  have  a  part  in  the  great  work 
involving  the  interests  of  a  nation,  the  hopes  of  humanity. 
All  the  strength  and  experience  gathered  by  the  exercise  of 
his  great  powers  for  nearly  half  a  century  were  needed  now,  to 
meet  the  strain  of  a  demand  to  which  no  other  living  man  was 
adequate,  for  whatever  part  others  may  have  borne  in  the 


234  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

events  succeeding  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincohi,  in  1860, 
the  contribution  of  John  Ericsson  to  the  cause  of  National 
Unity  was  as  unique  as  it  was  important. 

AVhen  the  storm  which  had  been  gathering  through  so  many 
years  of  political  commotion  burst  over  Fort  Sumter,  in  the 
spring  of  1S61,  Ericsson  was  in  the  fifty-eighth  year  of  his  age. 
lie  had  the  constitution  and  the  vital  force  of  a  man  of  forty ; 
an  experience  in  actual  accomplishment  such  as  few  acquire 
even  in  the  longest  lifetime,  and  this  experience  was  of  a  nat- 
ure to  make  his  services  of  the  greatest  value  to  his  adopted 
country.  Yet  no  place  could  be  found  for  him  at  a  time  when 
the  public  security  demanded  the  services  of  every  man  capable 
of  assisting  it.  High  commissions  in  the  military  service 
were  obtained  by  men  whose  lives  had  been  spent  in  making 
speeches  or  manipulating  politics,  and  they  were  bestowed  on 
foreigners  of  every  degree  of  military  experience  or  inexperi- 
ence. Search  ligrhts  were  turned  in  all  directions  to  discover 
men  who  might  aid  the  Government ;  but  not  a  ray  of  light 
fell  upon  John  Ericsson. 

The  difficulty  was  not  that  he  was  unknown,  but  that  he 
was  too  well  known — at  least  at  Washington,  and  in  those  bu- 
reaus of  the  Xavy  Department  with  which  his  abilities  and  his 
experience  would  naturally  associate  him.  Since  his  work  in 
1842-43  upon  the  Princeton,  he  had  been  engaged  more  or  less 
with  Government  matters  ;  but  with  the  bureaus  he  was  no 
favorite.  From  their  point  of  view  he  was  a  failure.  They 
preferred  the  safe  waters  of  precedent,  while  it  was  his  mission 
to  sail  the  high  seas  of  discovery.  "Without  judging  between 
them,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  Ericsson  and  the  Government 
officers,  to  whom  he  looked  for  approval,  were  seldom  in  ac- 
cord. 

Writing  to  Sir  John  Burgoyne  during  the  Crimean  War, 
Brunei,  the  great  engineer,  said  :  "  You  are  the  first  profes- 
sional man  of  high  official  rank  I  have  met  with  ready  to  assume 
the  possibility  of  a  man  who  is  neither  H.E.  nor  B.X.  [Itoyal 
Engineer  or  Boyal  Xavy]  having  an  idea  worth  attending  to." 
Brunei  had  taken  to  the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty  a  sugges- 
tion, prompted  by  his  anxiety  to  assist  his  adopted  countiy  in 
the  contest  wherein  it  was  allied  with  his  native  France.     This 


INCEPTION  OF  THE  MONITOR.  235 

suggestion  was  rejected  without  a  hearing,  as  the  suggestions 
of  Ericsson  and  so  many  others  liave  been  rejected  from  time 
to  time  by  these  Lords  Paramount  of  official  stolidity.  From 
boards  Brunei  turned  to  brains  and  made  his  appeal  to 
Palmerston,  who  referred  his  proposition  for  report  to  Sir 
John  Burgoyne,  inspector  of  fortifications,  lieutenant-general 
and  second  in  command  of  the  British  forces  in  the  Crimea. 
In  a  letter  to  the  Prime  Minister,  enclosing  a  favorable  report, 
Burgoyne  suggested  that  in  dealing  with  the  eminent  engineer 
"  there  was  need  of  the  exercise  of  tact,  arising  from  his 
thorough  independence,  which  rather  requires  that  lie  should 
be  courted  than  merely  given  permission  to  work  out  his  plans, 
and  his  great  dislike  to  negotiate  with  the  authorities  of  the 
Admiralty." 

No  man  knew  better  than  Sir  John  how  the  interests  of  the 
Government  are  sacrificed  to  the  conceit  of  office ;  to  the  dis- 
position of  small  men  in  large  places  to  make  arrogance  supply 
the  place  of  ability.  In  a  letter  to  Brunei,  General  Burgoyne, 
speaking  from  large  experience,  thus  explained  the  secret  of 
the  antagonism  so  often  arising  between  public  officers  and  men 
of  abilit}'  in  private  station  who  seek  to  serve  the  Government: 

First,  there  is  our  own  jealousy,  pride,  and  conceit,  of  which  you  all 
complain,  and  with  much  reason,  originating  in  a  false  idea  that  we 
should  be  admitting  a  culpable  want  of  knowledge  in  our  own  business 
by  obtaining  assistance  from  others  ;  then  another  false  conception, 
that  because  in  all  these  things  there  are  certain  military  considera- 
tions involved,  of  which  civilians  must  be  comparatively  ignorant,  there- 
fore it  is  that  only  a  military  man  can  devise  them ;  whereas  it  is 
generally  much  more  easy  for  us  to  make  you  masters  of  the  military 
conditions,  than  to  obtain  from  you  what  is  necessary  for  the  rest. 

At  the  same  time  there  is  usually  great  fault  on  the  side  of  the  ci- 
vilian projectors ;  they  put  us  down  for  a  set  of  ignoramuses  and  do  not 
admit  that  there  can  be  any  military  considerations  that  can  be  of  the 
least  consequence,  or  that  they  do  not  know  by  intuition.  Hence  the 
most  outrageous  propositions,  which  the  projectors,  however,  cling  to 
with  pertinacity,  and  call  us  bigots,  narrow-minded,  and  fools  because 
we  will  not  adopt  them.* 

Here  is  an  explanation  of  some  of  Ericsson's  difficulties. 
As  a  civilian,   seeking  to  influence  naval  administration,  he 
•  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Sir  John  Burgoyne,  pp.  365-66. 


236  LIFE   OF   JOHIT   ERICSSON. 

realized  the  disadvantages  of  what  is  known  to  military  men 
as  fighting  on  exterior  lines.  He  was  often  thwarted  by  inter- 
ference with  his  plans,  as  in  one  instance  whereof  he  bitterly 
exclaims,  in  a  private  letter:  "In  the  name  of  God  is  not 
my  position  crnel?  The  scoundrels  have  prevented  my  fur- 
nishing plans  or  giving  directions;  and  now  that  they  have 
failed,  they  attribute  this  failure  to  having  worked  to  my 
plans!  "     This  was  no  uncommon  experience  with  him. 

"In  the  name  of  common  sense,''  he  says  in  another  letter, 
"  should  an  engineer's  experiments  militate  against  his  works 
intended  for  practical  purposes  ?  If  so,  experiment  should  be 
conducted  by  those  only  who  are  incapable  of  constructing  any- 
thing. Am  I  not  the  originator  and  founder  and  perfector  of 
war  steamers,  under-water  machinery  and  entire  system  ?  Did 
any  of  my  screw-engines  ever  fail  ?  Experiments  with  con- 
densers, fresh-water  apparatus,  boilers,  etc.,  etc.,  are  matters 
apart  that  must  not  be  confounded  with  engines  huilt  for jf>r<zc- 
tical  purposes.  I  say  damned  is  the  injustice  of  calling  him 
'  wild '  who  has  originated  with  his  wildness  and  perfected  war 
propulsion  ! "  This  is  vigorous  language,  but  no  more  vigorous 
than  Ericsson's  experience  justified. 

"  You  have  heard  me  say,"  he  writes  again,  "  that  no  man 
can  tell  by  any  process  of  reasoning  how  a  new  form  of  boiler 
may  answer.  I  have  always  contended  that  the  subject  is  not 
susceptible  of  previoits  determination.  Xot  so  with  the  new 
form  of  engine  to  be  worked  by  steam  already  generated  !  I 
profess  to  be  able  to  determine  that  point  on  mechanical  data. 
In  that  respect  I  never  was  mistaken,  for  out  of  some  fifty  dis- 
tinctly different  forms  of  steam-engines  I  never  yet  failed  in  a 
single  instance  ;  with  steam  at  command  I  have  alwavs  pro- 
duced  a  perfect  working  engine.  All  the  world  predicted  fail- 
ure in  the  case  of  that  most  novel  form  of  engine  of  the  Prince- 
ton. But  ail  the  world  proved  wrong,  but  mark,  I  had  the 
steam  furnished  by  boilers  of  I'lwion  and  approved  form." 

These  letters  were  written  seven  years  before  the  outbreak 
of  the  American  Civil  AVar  had  directed  universal  attention 
to  Ericsson's  signal  ability.  From  them,  and  from  other  let- 
ters, it  appears  that  he  was  striving  to  impress  his  views 
upon  the  Xavy  Department  at  Washington  and  was  met  by  a 


INCEPTION   OF   THE   MONITOR.  237 

spirit  of  hostility  and  distrust  which  paralyzed  his  efforts  to 
serve  the  country.  Even  his  sober  statement  as  to  what  experi- 
ence had  made  possible  to  him  was  ganged  by  the  capabilities 
of  feebler  men ;  the  giant  was  accused  of  extravagance  because 
he  would  not  limit  his  powers  of  performance  to  those  of  the 
dwarfs.  It  was  supposed  that  two  years  would  be  required  to 
build  a  war  steamer,  and  Ericsson's  offer  to  do  the  same  work 
in  eight  months  subjected  him  to  suspicion.  Concerning  this 
he  wrote  to  Mr.  Sargent,  saying : 

New  York,  April  20,  1854. 

My  dear  Sargent  :  I  liave  your  letter  of  the  17fch,  relative  to  your  in- 
teresting interview  -with  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  I  feel  a  little  net- 
tled at  the  Hon.  Secretary's  doubting  my  statement  as  to  the  time  of 
building  the  Ericsson.  Please  present  to  him  the  enclosed  document 
on  the  subject, 

I  note  that  the  Secretary  thinks  my  assertion  that  a  screw  steamer 
may  be  built  in  eight  months  a  "  wild  "  one.  After  he  has  perused  the 
document  alluded  to,  he  will  think  otherwise.  Did  I  promise  to  build 
such  a  vessel  in  five  months  he  would  be  justified  in  thinking  me  wild, 
though  he  could  by  no  means  prove  his  position.  Should  I,  however, 
promise  to  do  the  work  in  six  months  it  would  be  quite  jDossible  for  me 
to  redeem  such  promise.  The  steamship  Massachusetls,  without  extraor- 
dinary exertion,  was  built,  hull,  engines,  and  all,  and  under  steam  in 
six  months. 

The  machinery  of  a  screw  steamer  contrasted  to  the  gigantic  eight- 
cylinder  engine  of  the  caloric  ship,  is  absolutely  insignificant.  Indeed, 
had  I  the  entire  control  of  building,  I  should  feel  impatient  at  spending 
more  than  five  months  in  building  a  screw  engine. 

One  word  as  to  my  promise  to  build  a  vessel  that  would  blow  half  a 
dozen  English  or  French  screw  ships  out  of  the  water.  Dobbin  will 
scarcely  find  it  so  difficialt  to  repress  his  merriment  at  the  suggestion  as 
did  Mr.  Lord,  of  the  British  Admiralty,  on  my  proposing  to  them  the 
application  of  the  propeller  to  their  men  of  war  exactly  as  the  thing  is  now 
done.  Pray  put  me  in  the  right  with  the  Hon.  Secretary.  I  do  not  pro- 
pose to  build  the  destractive  vessel,  I  only  say  that  in  eight  months 
such  a  vessel  could  easily  be  constnicted. 

Yours  very  truly, 

J.  Ericsson. 

John  O.  Sargent,  Washington. 


He  was  at  this  time  perfecting  his  system  of  "  sub-aquatic 
attack,"  and  his  ill-success  at  Washington  no  doubt  had  its  in- 


K 


« 


240  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

fluence  in  prompting  him  to  turn  his  attention  elsewhere,  as  it 
will  be  seen  that  he  did. 

In  a  confidential  letter  written  to  John  Bourne,  Ericsson 
said :  "  The  great  importance  of  what  I  call  the  sub-aquatic  sys- 
tem of  naval  warfare  strongly  presented  itself  to  my  mind  in 
1826.  Yet  I  have  not  during  this  lonrr  interval  communicated 
my  ideas  to  a  single  person,  excepting  Emperor  Xapoleon  III. 
"What  I  knew  twelve  years  ago,  he  knows  with  regard  to  the 
general  result  of  my  labors,  but  the  details  remain  a  secret 
with  me.  The  monitor  of  1854  was  the  visible  part  of  u\y  sys- 
tem, and  its  grand  features  were  excluded  from  its  published 
drawings  and  description."  ''  The  plan  I  sent  to  the  Emperor," 
he  says,  in  another  letter,  "  was  the  result  of  my  study  from 
youth.  An  impregnable  and  partially  submerged  instrument 
for  destroying  ships  of  war  has  been  one  of  the  hobbies  of  my 
life.  I  had  the  plan  matured  long  before  I  left  England.  As 
for  protecting  war  engines  for  naval  purposes  with  iron,  the 
idea  is  as  old  as  my  recollection." 

The  "  grand  features,"  excluded  from  the  published  draw- 
ings of  the  monitor  offered  to  Xapoleon,  were  apparently  those 
pertaining  to  Ericsson's  system  of  under- water  attack.  After 
his  death  I  found  among  his  papers  two  autographic  drawings, 
shown  here  in  fac-simile.  In  his  "  Contributions,"  Captain 
Ericsson  speaks  of  them  as  "unfortunately  lost,"  alluding, 
perhaps,  to  more  finished  drawings.  Those  given  here  show 
clearly  the  ideas  developed  on  the  Destroyer  of  1878.  The 
emergency  of  our  Civil  "War  did  not  call  them  forth,  and 
they  were  no  doubt  reserved  for  an  occasion  that  did  not 
arise  until  declining  years  warned  their  author  that  there 
was  danger  that  they  might  die  with  him.  They  would 
have  been  developed  promptly  enough  in  the  event  of  an 
attack  by  a  naval  power  upon  either  Sweden  or  the  United 
States. 

The  original  inspiration  to  Ericsson's  studies  in  naval  de- 
fence was  the  protection  of  his  native  Sweden  against  foreign 
aggression,  and  especially  against  the  encroachments  of  liussia, 
whose  hostility  to  Sweden  was  among  the  vivid  recollections  of 
his  early  youth.  Ilis  letter  was  sent  to  Xapoleon,  September 
26,  1854,  through  the  Swedish  Consul  at  Xew  York,  and  the 


INCEPTION   OF  THE  MONITOR.  241 

Swedish  Minister  in  Paris.  Concerning  his  purpose  in  laying 
tlie  matter  before  the  Emperor,  he  saj's :  "  Mj  object  was  to 
cause  the  destruction  of  tlie  fleets  of  the  hereditary  enemy  of 
my  native  land.  Strange  to  say,  no  sooner  did  my  communica- 
tion reach  its  destination,  than  news  came  that  the  fleet  at  Se- 
bastopol  had  been  voluntarily  consigned  to  those  subaqueous 
regions  which  I  had  had  in  view.  Deeply  regretting  what  had 
occurred,  I  ceased  to  labor  in  the  matter  until  our  civil  war 
broke  out,  when  I  took  it  up  with  great  enthusiasm  and  finally 
elaborated  some  points  of  detail ;  cautiously  waiting,  however, 
to  move  until  England  and  France  should,  by  overt  act,  es- 
pouse the  cause  of  our  enemies — a  cause  which  involved  the 
perpetuation  of  the  bondage  and  a  firmer  riveting  of  the 
shackles,  for  another  century,  of  four  million  of  persons  whose 
only  crime  was  their  color,  the  inevitable  consequence  being 
that  at  the  end  of  that  century  this  fair  portion  of  our  planet 
would  have  contained  some  forty  millions  of  bondsmen.  But 
the  echo  of  the  guns  at  Hampton  Roads  had  its  effect.  It 
was  deemed  imprudent  to  send  fieets  of  wooden  vessels  among 
enemies  so  fertile  in  mechanical  expedients  and  so  enterprising 
as  the  Americans." 

"  I  imagined,"  he  said  further,  in  a  letter  to  Assistant-Secre- 
tary Fox,  of  the  I^avy  Department,  "  that  I  had  a  very  valu- 
able idea  and  kept  it  secure  accordingly." 

The  Emperor  of  the  French  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
sufficiently  impressed  with  this  idea  to  make  use  of  it,  and  the 
receipt  of  the  plans  was  simply  acknowledged  with  the  usual 
formal  reply  of  courteous  thanks  as  follows  : 

Monsiexjb:  The  Emperor  has  himself  examined  with  the  greatest 
care  the  new  system  of  naval  attack  which  you  have  submitted  to  him. 
His  Majesty  directs  me  to  have  the  honor  of  informing  you  that  he  has 
found  your  ideas  very  ingenious  and  worthy  of  the  celebrated  name  of 
their  author ;  but  the  Emperor  thinks  that  the  result  to  be  obtained 
would  not  be  proportionate  to  the  expenses  or  to  the  small  number  of 
guns  which  could  be  brought  into  use.  Although  not  disposed  to  make 
use  of  your  inventions  the  Emperor  appreciates  all  their  merit,  and  di- 
rects me  to  thank  you  for  this  interesting  communication. 

The  plans  and  description  sent  to  the  Emperor  were  accord- 
ingly put  aside,  and  the  dust  of  nearly  seven  years  had  accumu- 


242  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

lated  upon  them  before  anotlier  motive  appealed  to  Ericsson 
with  sufficient  strength  to  induce  him  to  make  them  available 
for  the  purposes  of  warfare.  "  This  motive,"  as  he  explains, 
"  was  that  of  serving  the  Union  cause  by  constructing  vessels 
capable  of  defeating  the  Merrimac  and  other  Confederate  iron- 
clad vessels." 

In  July,  1861,  Mr.  Delaraater,  who  had  been  Ericsson's  as- 
sociate in  so  many  of  his  engineering  enter])rises,  wrote  to  him 
from  "Washington,  saying :  "  I  am  treated  well :  have  had  two 
evening  interviews  with  Mr.  Secretary  Welles,  one  of  them 
alone  in  my  own  room,  yet  I  have  no  expectation  of  any  con- 
tract or  immediate  good  to  result  to  me  or  to  us  from  my  pres- 
ent stay.  I  am  remaining  to  finish  off  Mr.  Isherwood  if  possi- 
ble, which  I  think  I  owe  it  to  my  country  to  do.  Mr.  "Welles 
seems  to  have  taken  a  fancy  to  me  and  I  have  avoided  pressing 
any  special  purpose,  and  altogether  my  position  appears  to  be 
strangely  disinterested.  Am  to  see  Mr.  "Welles  this  evening  at 
his  request.  I  have  given  Isherwood  an  Irish  hoist,  and  if  I 
only  knew  who  in  the  navy  to  aid,  might  almost  finish  the 
job." 

As  Ericsson  and  Delamater  had  various  interests  together  it 
does  not  follow  that  this  visit  had  any  relation  to  the  proposed 
iron-clads.  Indeed,  the  allusion  to  Ericsson's  old  antagonist, 
Mr.  Isherwood,  chief  of  the  JSTaval  Bureau  of  Steam  Engineer- 
ing, would  indicate  that  it  was  to  the  work  of  his  department 
that  Mr.  Delamater's  efforts  were  directed. 

The  subject  of  iron-clad  vessels  had  at  that  time  just  begun 
to  attract  the  attention  of  Congress,  and  no  appropriation  for 
building  such  vessels  was  yet  available.  In  his  report  dated 
July  4,  18G1,  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Mr.  Gideon  Welles, 
called  attention  to  the  efforts  of  foreign  governments,  and  par- 
ticularly France  and  England,  to  provide  themselves  with 
"  floating  batteries  or  iron-clad  steamers"  adding:  "I  would 
recommend  the  appointment  of  a  proper  and  competent  board 
to  inquire  into  and  report  in  regard  to  a  measure  so  important, 
and  it  is  for  Congress  to  decide  whether,  on  favorable  report, 
they  will  order  one  or  more  iron -clad  steamers,  or  floating  bat- 
teries." 

The  submission  of  Ericsson's  plans  to  the  Emperor  Napo- 


INCEPTION   OF   THE   MONITOE.  243 

leon  had  been  followed  the  next  year,  1855,  by  the  appearance 
in  the  attack  upon  Kinburn,  daring  the  Crimean  War,  of  three 
French  floating  batteries  clad  with  4^-inch  plates,  the  Lave, 
the  Devastation,  and  the  Tonnante.  Three  years  later,  in  1858, 
Napoleon  ordered  the  construction  of  four  armor-plated  steam 
frigates,  La  Gloire,  Llnmncihle,  La  Normandie,  and  La  Cou- 
ronne.  These  were  all  the  armored  vessels  France  had  in  com- 
mission at  the  beginning  of  1861.  Two  others,  the  Solferino 
and  Magenta,  had  been  launched,  and  twelve  more  were  on  the 
stocks.  England  had  at  sea  her  Wai^rior,  Black  Prince,  De- 
fence, Resistance,  and  Eoijal  Oak,  with  five  other  armor-clads 
launched  and  eleven  more  under  way.  This  refers  to  sea-go- 
ing vessels  only.  None  of  these  ships  had  any  resemblance  to 
the  vessel  suggested  by  Ericsson  to  Napoleon  in  1854,  except 
in  their  significant  departure  from  the  precedent  of  wooden 
walls,  upon  which  so  much  reliance  had  hitherto  been  placed. 

The  conditions  calling  for  armor  plating  had  actually  ex- 
isted for  forty  years,  or  ever  since  the  introduction,  in  1819,  by 
one  of  the  soldiers  of  the  First  Napoleon,  General  Henri  Jo- 
seph Paixhans  of  the  system  of  firing  explosive  shell  directly 
at  an  object,  instead  of  from  mortars  on  an  ascending  and  de- 
scending curve  through  the  air,  as  before.* 

The  attention  of  the  British  Admiralty  was  called  in  1834- 
35  to  the  advisability  of  adopting  iron  for  ships  of  war.      Iron 

*  In  response  to  a  letter  from  Rear- Admiral  S.  B.  Luce,  U.S.N.,  claiming 
this  invention  for  General  George  Bomford,  U.S.A.,  whose  "columbiad" 
was  known  at  an  earlier  date,  Ericsson  wrote  this  letter : 

New  York,  December  10,  1885. 

Dear  Admiral  :  Shortly  after  my  arrival  in  this  country,  1839,  I  became 
intimately  acquainted  with  Colonel  Bomford  and  Commodore  Perry.  The 
latter  had  just  returned  from  England  and  France,  where  he  had  studied 
naval  ordnance  under  instructions  from  the  Navy  Department.  The  result 
of  his  journey  was  considered  very  important  at  the  time,  as  he  brought  a  full 
report  of  the  success  of  the  then  recent  labors  of  General  Paixhan ;  he  also 
brought  complete  drawings  of  Paixhan's  perfected  shell  gun,  which  was  at 
once  adopted  by  the  Navy  Department  at  Washington  for  the  two  large  pad- 
dle wheel  steam  frigates,  Mmissippi  and  Missovri,  then  being  constructed. 

I  had  frequent  interviews  with  the  two  United  States  officers  mentioned, 
as  I  brought  plans  of  a  screw  steamshipof-war,  for  which  Congress  at  once 
granted  an  appropriation.  Of  course  General  Paixhan's  brilliant  invention 
and  its  important  bearing  on  naval  warfare  was  frequently  adverted  to  dur- 


244  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

targets  were  ordered  to  be  prepared  at  Woolwich  for  experiment 
with  a  32- pounder  smooth-bore  gun  at  a  range  of  only  thirty 
yards.  Iron  was  condemned  as  a  result  of  these  experiments, 
and  the  Admiralty  fell  back  upon  the  old  wooden  walls,  as  the 
only  vessels  calculated  for  the  purposes  of  war.  This  decision 
against  a  change  retarded  everything  in  the  shape  of  progress 
until  the  adoption  of  iron-clads  in  the  French  Kavy  compelled 
England  to  follow  the  lead  of  Napoleon  in  1855.* 

As  early  as  18-15  an  American  engineer,  Mr.  R.  L.  Stevens, 
had  undertaken  to  experiment  with  armor,  and  in  the  year  that 
Ericsson  sent  the  model  of  his  monitor  to  France  had  begun,  as 
has  been  already  stated,  tlie  construction  of  an  iron-plated  ship. 

The  results  of  shell-firing  upon  naval  warfare  were  not 
made  apparent  until  the  Crimean  "War.  Then  jSTapoleon  III., 
who  prided  himself  upon  his  knowledge  of  artillerj',  was  greatly 
chagrined  to  find  how  much  the  French  navy  was  at  a  disad- 
vantage in  the  contest  with  the  Russian  forts  in  the  Black  Sea. 
If  he  did  not  take  Ericsson's  plans,  he  certainly  adopted  the 
suggestion  of  armor  defence  and  built  five  arraor-clads,  England 
following  in  humble  imitation  with  an  equal  number  on  the 
same  general  plan.  The  guns  at  this  time  had  so  much  the 
advantage  that  the  Russians  were  able  to  steam  into  Sinope  and 
in  a  single  morning  destroy  the  Turkish  fleet,  to  shut  out  Sir 
Charles  Xapier  from  Cronstadt,  and  to  defy  the  allied  fleets  at 
Sebastopol.  Of  the  British  experience  in  the  Black  Sea  Lord 
Dundonald,  one  of  the  bravest  sailors  that  ever  trod  a  quarter- 
ing the  said  interviews,  yet  Colonel  Bomford  in  my  presence  never  claimed 
the  new  gun  as  his  invention. 

In  connection  with  coa«t  ih- fence  the  *'  columbiad  '  was  often  spoken  of,  a 
gun  particularly  described  in  the  enclosed  extract  from  Colonel  Benton's 
Ordnance  and  Gunnery,  published  at  New  York,  18G7.  I  also  enclose  a 
brief  extract  from  Appleton's  Cyclopedia  of  18G4,  vol.  xii. ,  page  145. 

With  reference  to  the  "  bomb  cannon  "  for  firing  hollow  shot  charged 
with  powder,  I  beg  to  observe  that  during  my  early  studies  of  artillery,  pre- 
vious to  1820,  such  a  gun  was  not  even  then  regarded  as  a  novelty. 

I  have  deemed  the  foregoing  explanation  necessary  in  answer  to  your  as- 
sumption that  I  have,  in  my  Century  article,  inadvertently  deprived  General 
Bomford  of  the  credit  of  being  the  originator  of  a  system  known  in  Europe 
before  his  time.  I  am,  Admiral,  yours  truly, 

J.  Ericsson. 

•  Fairbairn  on  Iron  Ship  Building. 


INCEPTION   OF  THE  MONITOK.  245 

deck,  asserted  that  the  Russian  shells  made  it  impossible  to 
continue  the  vessels  under  fire,  and  it  was  considered  no  dis- 
grace to  declare,  after  three  shells  had  exploded  in  one  ship,  it 
was  not  possible  to  find  men  "fools  enough  to  stand  to  the 
guns."  "  The  man  who  goes  into  action  in  a  wooden  vessel  is 
a  fool,"  said  Sir  John  Hay,  "  and  the  man  who  sends  him  there 
is  a  villain." 

The  Confederate  Secretary  of  the  Navy  in  1860  was  Mr. 
Stephen  R.  Mallory,  of  Florida,  who  had  served  for  several 
years  in  Congress  as  Chairman  of  the  Naval  Committee.  He 
had  been,  as  we  have  seen,  a  champion  of  Ericsson,  and  in  a 
speech  in  Congress,  made  in  May,  1858,  had  shown  intelligent 
appreciation  of  the  revolution  in  naval  warfare  accotnplished  by 
the  Princeton.  Mr.  Mallory  was  much  better  informed  in  nau- 
tical matters  than  Mr.  Welles,  Secretary  of  the  Navy  in  the 
Cabinet  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  more  prompt  to  recognize  the 
changes  in  naval  warfare.  Two  months  before  the  Federal 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  had  made  his  halting  suggestion  to  Con- 
gress on  the  subject  of  armored  vessels  the  head  of  the  Con- 
federate naval  service  had  spoken  on  the  same  subject  in  these 
distinct  terms,  in  a  letter  to  the  Chairman  of  the  Confederate 
Naval  Committee  dated  May  8,  1861  : 

I  regard  the  possession  of  an  iron-armored  ship  as  a  matter  of  the 
first  necessity.  Such  a  vessel  at  this  time  could  traverse  the  entire 
coast  of  the  United  States,  prevent  all  blockade,  and  encounter,  with  a 
fair  i^rospect  of  success,  their  entire  navy.  If,  to  cope  with  them  upon 
the  sea,  we  follow  their  example,  and  build  wooden  ships,  we  shall  have 
to  construct  several  at  one  time,  for  one  or  two  ships  would  fall  an  easy 
prey  to  their  comparatively  numerous  steam  frigates.  But  inequality  of 
numbers  may  be  compensated  by  invulnerability,  and  thus  not  only 
does  economy,  but  naval  success,  dictate  the  wisdom  and  expediency  of 
fighting  with  iron  against  wood  without  regard  to  first  cost. 

Naval  engagements  between  wooden  frigates,  as  they  are  now  built 
and  armed,  will  prove  to  be  the  forlorn  hopes  of  the  sea,  simply  contests 
in  which  the  question,  not  of  victory,  but  of  who  shall  go  to  the  bottom 
first,  is  to  be  solved.  Should  the  committee  deem  it  expedient  to 
begin  at  once  the  construction  of  such  a  ship,  not  a  moment  should  be 
lost. 

Mr.  Mallory's  action  was  as  decided  as  his  words.  Witliout 
waiting  for  an  appropriation,  on  July  11,  1861,  he  approved 


246  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON". 

plans  submitted  to  him  by  Chief  Engineer  William  P.  "William- 
son, Lieutenant  John  M.  Brooke,  an  ex-oflficer  of  the  United 
States  Kavy,  and  Naval  Constructor  John  L.  Porter.  These 
plans  provided  for  raising  and  altering  into  an  iron-clad,  the 
U.  S.  frigate  Merrimac^  of  3,500  tons  and  40  guns.  This  had 
been  burnt  and  sunk  at  the  Norfolk  Navy  Yard  when  it  was 
abandoned  in  April,  1861.  With  but  one  establishment  in  the 
South  capable  of  furnishing  her  armor,  the  Tredegar  foundry, 
the  work  upon  the  Yirginia,  as  she  was  rechristened,  was  slow, 
and  in  this  delay  Ericsson  found  his  opportunity. 

On  August  3,  1861,  President  Lincoln  approved  an  act  of 
Congress,  authorizing  the  appointment  of  a  Board  asked  for  by 
Mr.  Welles.  An  advertisement  inviting  proposals  for  iron- 
clad steam  vessels  was  issued  from  the  Navy  Department,  and 
August  Sth  Commodores  Joseph  Smith  and  Hiram  Paulding 
and  Commander  Charles  IE.  Davis  were  appointed  a  board  to 
examine  plans.  Twenty-six  days  later  Ericsson  prepared  the 
letter  to  President  Lincoln  which  follows,  as  appears  from  a 
copy  of  it  in  his  handwriting  found  among  his  papers : 

New  York,  August  29, 1861. 
Sib  :  The  writer,  having  introduced  the  present  system  of  naval  pro- 
pulsion and  constructed  the  first  screw  ship  of  war,  now  offers  to  con- 
struct a  vessel  for  the  destruction  of  the  rebel  fleet  at  Norfolk  and  for 
scouring  the  Southern  rivers  and  inlets  of  all  craft  protected  by  rebel 
batteries.  Having  thus  briefly  noticed  the  object  of  my  addressing  you, 
it  will  be  proper  for  me  most  respectfully  to  state  that  in  making  this 
off'er  I  seek  no  private  advantage  or  emolument  of  any  kind.  Fortu- 
nately I  have  already  upward  of  one  thousand  of  my  caloric  engines  in 
successful  operation,  with  affluence  in  prospect.  Attachment  to  tlie 
Union  alone  impels  me  to  offer  my  services  at  this  fearful  crisis — my 
life  if  need  be — in  the  great  caiise  which  Providence  has  called  you  to 
defend.  Please  look  carefully  at  the  enclosed  jilans  and  you  will  find 
that  the  means  I  propose  to  employ  are  very  simple — so  simple,  in- 
deed, that  within  ten  weeks  after  commencing  the  structure  I  would  en- 
gage to  be  ready  to  take  up  position  under  the  rebel  guns  at  Norfolk, 
and  so  efficient  too,  I  trust,  that  within  a  few  hours  the  stolen  ships 
would  be  .sunk  and  the  harbor  purged  of  traitors.  Apart  from  the  fact 
that  the  proposed  vessel  is  very  simple  in  construction,  due  weight,  I  re- 
spectfully submit,  should  be  given  to  the  circumstance  that  its  projector 
possesses  practical  and  constructive  skill  shared  by  no  engineer  now 
living.    I  have  planned  upward  of  one  hundred  mai'iuo  engines  and  I 


INCEPTION   OF   THE   MONITOR.  247 

furnish  daily,  working-plans  made  witli  my  own  liands  of  meclianical 
and  naval  structures  of  various  kinds,  and  I  have  done  so  for  thirty 
years.  Besides  this  I  have  received  a  military  education  and  feel  at 
home  in  the  science  of  artillery.  You  will  not,  sir,  attribute  these 
statements  to  any  other  cause  than  my  anxiety  to  prove  that  you  may 
safely  entrust  me  with  the  work  I  propose.  If  you  cannot  do  so  then 
the  country  must  lose  the  benefit  of  my  proffered  services.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  you  decide  to  act,  please  telegraph  and  I  will  at  once  wait 
upon  you  in  Washington.  I  respectfully  submit  that  in  the  former  case 
you  return  the  plans,  honored  with  your  signature,  to  testify  that  I  have 
discharged  the  duty  of  laying  this  important  matter  before  you. 

I  cannot  conclude  without  respectfully  calling  your  attention  to  the 
now  well-established  fact  that  steel-clad  vessels  cannot  be  arrested  in 
their  course  by  land  batteries,  and  that  hence  our  great  city  is  quite  at 
the  mercy  of  such  intruders,  and  may  at  any  moment  be  laid  in  ruins, 
unless  we  possess  means  which,  in  defiance  of  Armstrong  guns,  can 
crush  the  sides  of  such  dangerous  visitors. 

I  am,  sir,  with  profound  respect,  your  obedient  servant, 

J.  Ericsson. 

To  His  Excellency  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States. 

It  is  not  for  me,  sir,  to  remind  you  of  the  immense  moral  effect  that 
will  result  from  your  discomfiting  the  rebels  at  Norfolk  and  showing 
that  batteries  can  no  longer  protect  vessels  robbed  from  the  nation,  nor 
need  I  allude  to  the  effect  in  Europe  if  you  demonstrate  that  you  can 
effectively  keep  hostile  fleets  away  from  our  shores.  At  the  moment  of 
putting  this  communication  under  enveloi^e  it  occurs  to  me  finally  that 
it  is  unsafe  to  trust  the  plans  to  the  mails.  I  therefore  respectfully 
suggest  that  you  reflect  on  my  proposition.  Should  you  decide  to  put 
the  work  in  hand,  if  my  plan  meets  your  own  approbation,  please  tele- 
graph and  within  forty-eight  hours  the  writer  will  report  himself  at  the 
"White  House. 

It  was  fortunate  for  Ericsson  that  the  naval  board  on  iron- 
clads were  so  ignorant  as  they  were  of  the  subject  committed 
to  their  decision.  Beyond  a  general  distrust  of  and  prejudice 
against  armored  vessels  they  had  no  opinion  concerning  them, 
and  no  predilections  in  favor  of  any  special  system.  Embarked 
upon  unfamiliar  waters,  they  were  ready  to  listen  to  anyone 
who  offered  to  pilot  them  safely  into  harbor.  In  their  report 
to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  dated  September  16,  1861,  they 
frankly  said  :  "  Distrustful  of  our  ability  to  discharge  this 
duty,  we  approach  the  subject  with  diffidence,  having  no  ex- 
perience and  but  scant  knowledge  in  this  branch  of  naval  archi- 


248  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

tecture."  Their  disposition  was  to  favor  vessels  for  coast  and 
harbor  defence,  as  undoubtedly  formidable  adjuncts  to  fortifica- 
tions on  land.  "  For  river  and  harbor  service,'  they  declared, 
"  we  consider  iron-clad  vessels  of  light  draught  or  floating  bat- 
teries, thus  shielded,  as  very  important."  Their  final  conclusion 
was  to  meet  the  immediate  demand  by  calling  for  "  vessels  in- 
vulnerable to  shot,  of  light  draught  of  water,  before  going  into 
a  more  perfect  system  of  large  iron-clad  sea-going  vessels  of 
war."  So  far,  then,  their  disposition  was  in  favor  of  such  a 
vessel  as  Ericsson  proposed. 

The  three  vessels  the  Board  recommended  for  adoption 
were  the  Ericsson  floating  battery  ;  a  broadside  vessel  of  3,296 
tons,  afterward  known  as  the  Ironside^^  and  the  Galena.  The 
plans  for  this  last  vessel  were  presented  by  Mr.  C.  S.  Bushnell, 
of  Xew  Haven,  Conn.,  who  was  subsequently  associated  with 
Ericsson  in  building  the  Monitor.  Telling  the  story  of  his  ex- 
perience with  the  Board  Mr.  Bushnell  said,  in  a  letter  written 
some  years  ago  to  Secretary  "Welles : 


The  Board  examined  hundreds  of  plans,  good  and  bad,  and  among 
others  that  of  a  plated  gunboat  called  the  Galena,  contrived  by  S.  H. 
Pook,  now  a  constructor  in  the  navy.  The  partial  protection  of  iron  bars 
proposed  for  her,  seemed  so  burdensome  that  many  naval  officers  warned 
me  against  the  possibility  that  she  might  not  be  able  to  carry  the  weight 
of  her  armament. 

I  met  Mr.  C.  H.  Delamater  on  the  steps  of  "Willard's  Hotel  in  "Wash- 
ington just  after  I  had  secured  the  contract  for  the  Galena.  When  I 
told  him  that  several  naval  men  doubted  whether  the  vessel  would  be 
able  to  carry  the  stipulated  amount  of  iron,  he  advised  me  to  consult 
the  engineer  Captain  John  Ericsson,  of  New  York,  as  one  whose  opinion 
would  settle  the  matter  definitely  and  with  accuracy.  Acting  upon  the 
advice  of  Mr.  Delamater,  I  went  to  New  York  on  the  following  day  and 
laid  the  plans  of  the  Galena  before  Captain  Ericsson,  asking  whether 
the  vessel  would  be  able  to  carry  the  specified  armor.  I  gave  him  the 
data  necessary  for  his  calculations  and  be  told  me  to  call  the  next  day 
for  his  reply.  This  I  did  and  received  the  answer.  "  She  will  easily 
carry  the  load  you  propose  and  stand  a  six-inch  shot  at  a  respectable 
distance." 

At  the  close  of  this  interview  Captain  Ericsson  asked  me  if  I  had 
time  just  then  to  examine  the  plan  of  a  floating  battery,  absolutely  im- 
pregnable to  the  heaviest  shot  or  shell.  I  replied  that  this  problem  had 
been  occupying  me  for  the  last  three  months,  and  that  considering  the 


INCEPTION  OF  THE  MONITOR.  249 

time  required  for  construction,  the  Galena  was  the  best  result  I  had 
been  able  to  obtain. 

He  then  produced  a  small,  dust-covered  box,  and  placed  before  me 

the  model  and  plan  of  the  Monitor,  explaining  how  quickly  and  power- 
fully she  could  be  built,  and  exhibiting  with  characteristic  pride  a 
medal  and  letter  of  thanks  received  seven  years  previously  from  Napo- 
leon III.  For  it  appears  that  Ericsson  had  invented  this  battery  dur- 
ing the  Franco -Kussian  War,  and  out  of  hostility  to  Eussia  had  pre- 
sented it  to  France,  hoping  thus  to  aid  in  the  defeat  of  Sweden's 
hereditary  foe.  The  invention,  however,  came  too  late  to  be  of  service 
and  was  preserved  for  another  issue. 

I  was  perfectly  overjoyed  when,  at  the  close  of  the  interview,  Cap- 
tain Ericsson  entrusted  the  box  with  its  precious  contents  to  my  care. 
You  doubtless  will  remember  my  delight  with  the  plan  of  the  Monitor,  as 
I  followed  you  to  Hartford,  where  you  were  sjDending  a  few  days,  and  as- 
tounded you  by  saying  that  the  country  was  safe  because  I  had  found  a 
battery  which  would  make  us  masters  of  the  situation,  so  far  as  the 
ocean  was  concerned.  I  left  New  York  that  night  and  went  to  Hart- 
ford direct,  without  stopping  at  my  home  in  New  Haven,  so  eager  was 
I  to  save  time  in  bringing  this  great  discovery  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
Navy  Department. 

You  were  much  pleased  and  urged  me  to  lose  no  time  in  presenting 
the  plan  to  the  Naval  Board  at  Washington.  I  at  once  secured  the  co- 
operation of  wise  and  able  associates,  in  the  persons  of  the  late  Hon. 
John  A.  Griswold,  and  John  F.  Winslow,  of  Troy,  both  friends  of  Gov- 
ernor Seward  (Secretary  of  State)  and  large  manufacturers  of  iron 
plates,  etc.  Governor  Seward  furnished  us  with  a  strong  letter  of  in- 
troduction to  President  Lincoln,  who  was  at  once  greatly  pleased  with 
the  simplicity  of  the  plan,  and  agreed  to  accompany  us  to  the  Navy  De- 
partment at  11  A.M.  the  following  day,  and  aid  us  as  best  he  could. 
He  was  on  hand  promptly  at  11  o'clock — the  day  before  your  return  from 
Hartford.  Captain  Fox  (Assistant  Secretaiy  of  the  Navy)  together  with 
a  part  of  the  Naval  Board  were  present.*  All  were  surprised  with  the 
novelty  of  the  plan.  Some  advised  trying  it ;  others  ridiculed  it.  The 
conference  was  finally  closed  for  that  day  by  Mr.  Lincoln's  remarking  : 

"All  I  have  to  say  is  what  the  girl  said  when  she  stuck  her  foot  into 
the  stocking.   It  strikes  me  there's  something  in  it !  "  f 

The  following  day  Admiral  Smith  convened  the  full  board,  and  I 
presented  as  best  I  could  the  plan  and  its  merits,  carefully  noting  the 
remark  of  each  member  of  the  board.  I  then  went  to  my  hotel  quite 
sanguine  of  success,  but  only  to  be  disappointed   the  following  day. 

*  Several  naval  officers  were  also  present  unofficially. 

f  Mr.  Bushnell  was  given  a  pasteboard  model  of  the  Monitor,  admirably 
illustrating  the  easy  method  of  training  the  guns  by  rotating  the  turret.  It 
was  this  that  struck  Lincoln,  and  which  he  held  in  his  hand  when  he  re- 
marked about  the  girl  and  her  stocking. 


250  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

For  during  the  hours  following  the  last  session  I  found  that  the  air  had 
been  thick  with  croakings  that  the  department  was  about  to  father  an- 
other Ericsson  failure. 

Never  was  I  more  active  than  in  proving  that  Ericsson  had  never 
made  a  failure  ;  that  on  the  contrary  he  had  built  for  our  Government 
the  first  steam  war  propeller  ever  made  ;  that  the  bui-sting  of  the  gun 
was  no  fault  of  his,  but  of  the  shell,  which  was  not  made  strong  enough 
to  prevent  its  flattening  up  with  the  pressure  of  the  explosion  behind  it, 
making  the  bursting  of  the  gun  unavoidable  ;  *  that  his  caloric  principle 
was  a  triumphant  success,  but  that  no  metal  had  yet  been  found  to  util- 
ize it  on  a  large  scale.  I  succeeded  at  length  in  getting  Admirals 
Smith  and  Paulding  to  promise  to  sign  a  report  advising  the  building 
of  one  trial  battery  prorjf/erf  Captain  Da\'is  would  join  with  them.  On 
going  to  him  I  was  informed  that  I  might  "take  the  little  thing  home 
and  worship  it,  as  it  would  not  be  idolatry,  because  it  was  in  the  image 
of  nothing  in  the  heaven  above  or  on  the  earth  beneath  or  in  the  waters 
under  the  earth." 

One  thing  only  yet  remained  to  be  done.  This  was  to  get  Ericsson 
to  come  to  Washington  and  plead  the  case  himself.  This  I  was  sure 
would  win  the  case,  and  so  informed  you,  for  Ericsson  is  a  full  electric 
battery  in  himself.  You  at  once  promised  to  have  a  meeting  at  your 
own  room  if  I  could  succeed  in  inducing  him  to  come.  This  was  ex- 
ceedingly doubtful ;  for  so  badly  had  he  been  treated,  and  so  unmerci- 
fully maligned  in  regard  to  the  Princeton,  that  he  had  repeatedly  de- 
clared that  he  would  never  set  foot  in  Washington  again. 

Nevertheless,  I  appeared  at  his  house  next  morning  precisely  at  nine 
o'clock,  and  heard  his  sharp  greeting : 

"  Well,  how  is  it  ?  " 

"Glorious,"  said  I. 

"  Go  on !  go  on,"  said  he  with  impatience.    "  What  did  they  say  ?  " 

"Admiral  Smith  says  it  is  worthy  of  the  genius  of  an  Ericsson." 

The  pride  fairly  gleamed  in  his  eye. 

"  But  Paulding — what  did  he  say  of  it  ?  " 

"  He  said  it  was  just  the  thing  to  clear  the  rebels  out  of  Charles- 
ton with." 

"How  about  Davis?"  he  inquired,  as  I  appeared  to  delay  a  mo- 
ment. 

"  Captain  Davis,"  said  I,  "  wants  two  or  three  explanations  in  detail 
that  I  couldn't  give  him,  and  Secretaiy  Welles  wishes  you  to  come  right 
on  and  make  them  before  the  entire  board  in  his  room  at  the  Depart- 
ment." 

"  Well,  I'll  go,  I'll  go  to-night." 

*  Mr.  Bushnell  might  have  said  further  that  it  was  not  Ericsson's  gun 
that  burst,  but  the  one  Stockton  had  copied  from  it,  and  which  had,  in  some 
way,  been  so  injured  iu  the  forging  that  the  crystals  were  of  abnormal  size. 
Kor  was  it  reinforced  as  Ericsson's  guu  was. 


INCEPTIOlSr   OF  THE   MONITOR.  251 

From  that  moment  I  knew  that  the  success  of  the  affair  was  assured. 
You  remember  how  he  thrilled  every  person  present  in  your  room  with 
his  ^dvid  description  of  what  the  little  boat  would  be,  and  what  she 
could  do,  and  that  in  ninety  days  time  she  could  be  built,  although  the 
rebels  had  already  been  four  months  at  work  on  the  Merrimac  with  all 
the  apjaliances  of  the  Norfolk  Navy  Yard  to  help  them.  You  asked  him 
how  much  it  would  cost  to  complete  her.  Two  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  thousand  dollars  he  said. 

Then  you  promptly  turned  to  the  members  of  the  Board,  and  one  by 
one  asked  them  if  they  would  recommend  that  a  contract  be  entered  into 
for  her  construction  with  Captain  Ericsson  and  his  associates.  Each 
one  said,  "  Yes,  by  all  means."  And  then  you  told  Captain  Ericsson  to 
start  her  immediately  ;  and  the  next  day  in  New  York  a  large  portion  of 
every  article  used  in  her  construction  was  ordered,  and  a  contract  im- 
mediately entered  into  between  Captain  Ericsson  and  his  associates  and 
T.  F.  Rowland  at  Greenpoint,  for  the  most  expeditious  construction  of 
the  most  formidable  vessel  ever  made. 

It  was  arranged  that  after  a  few  days  I  should  procure  a  formal 
documentary  contract  from  the  Naval  Board,  to  be  signed  and  executed 
by  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Captain  Ericsson,  and  associates. 

I  regret  that  this  part  of  the  matter  has  been  misunderstood  and 
misjudged,  as  though  you  had  made  terms  heavier  or  the  risk  greater 
than  you  ought.  The  simple  fact  was  that  after  we  had  entered  upon 
the  work  of  construction,  and  before  the  formal  contract  had  been 
awarded,  a  great  clamor  arose,  much  of  it  due  to  interested  parties,  to 
the  effect  that  the  battery  would  prove  a  failure  and  disgrace  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Board  for  their  action  in  recommending  it. 

For  their  own  protection,  therefore,  and  out  of  their  superabundant 
caution,  they  insisted  on  inserting  in  the  contract  a  clause  requiring 
us  to  guarantee  the  complete  success  of  the  battery,  so  that  in  case 
she  proved  a  failure  Government  might  be  refunded  the  amounts  ad- 
vanced to  us  from  time  to  time  during  her  construction.  To  Captain 
Ericsson  and  myself  this  was  never  an  embarrassment.  But  to  Mr. 
"Winslow,  as  indeed  to  Mr.  Griswold  also,  it  seemed  that  the  Board  had 
asked  too  much.  But  I  know  that  the  noble  old  Admiral  Smith  never 
intended  that  we  should  suffer.  And  among  the  many  fortunate  things 
that  the  nation  had  occasion  to  be  grateful  for — like  the  providential 
selection  as  President  in  those  dark  days  of  the  immortal  Lincoln,  who 
knew  how  to  select  a  man  for  the  head  of  the  navy  who  united  diplo- 
matic skill  and  judgment  with  absolute  promptness,  with  a  private 
Secretaiy  [l\Ir.  "W.  Faxon],  who  never  left  his  desk  at  night  with  a  thing 
undone  that  could  be  done  to  assure  success  that  day — was  the  appoint- 
ment of  Admiral  Smith  to  the  charge  of  the  Navy  Yards,  who  always 
seemed  to  sleep  with  one  eye  open,  so  constant  was  his  watchfulness 
and  so  eager  his  desire  that  the  entire  navy  should  bo  always  in  readi- 
ness to  do  its  part  in  the  overthrow  of  the  Kebellion. 


252  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

I  am  confident  that  no  native-born  child  of  this  country  will  ever 
forget  the  proud  son  of  Sweden,  who  could  sit  in  his  own  house  and 
contrive  the  three  thousand  different  parts  that  go  to  make  up  the  com- 
plete hull  of  the  steam  battery  Dictator,  so  that  when  the  mechanics 
came  to  put  the  parts  together  not  a  single  alteration  in  any  particular 
was  required  to  be  made.  What  the  little  first  monitor  and  the  subse- 
quent larger  ones  achieved  is  a  part  of  history. 

One  of  my  associates — as  noble  and  generous  a  man  as  it  is  the  lot 
of  one  ever  to  meet  on  earth — John  A.  Griswold,  has  gone  to  his  rest, 
and  fast  shall  we  each  and  all  follow,  but  it  may  be  a  pleasure  to  those 
who  should  love  our  memory  to  find  with  your  preserved  records  of  those 
trying  times  this  memorandum  of  the  unrecorded  private  negotiations 
that  resulted  in  the  opportune  meeting  of  the  "cheese-box"  on  a  raft 
with  the  ponderous  Merrimac  at  Hampton  Eoads  March  9,  1862.* 

Ericsson  proceeded  to  Washington  on  the  night  of  Septem- 
ber 13,  1861,  arriving  there  the  next  morning  after  the  tedious 
journey  in  ill-ventilated  and  over-crowded  cars,  which  was  the 
penalty  of  a  summons  to  the  capital  in  those  days.  With 
him  journeyed  the  usual  crowd  of  soldiers  hastening  to  join 
their  regiments ;  office-seekers,  loaded  down  with  testimonials  as 
to  their  "  claims  ;  "  civilians  of  every  grade — eager  to  enlighten 
the  Government  with  their  wisdom,  to  assist  it  with  offers  of 
service,  or  to  worry  it  with  crude  suggestions  as  to  the  conduct 
of  the  war.  To  the  authorities  of  AYashington  the  great  en- 
gineer was  only  one  of  the  motley  gathering  of  patriots,  to 
whose  suggestions,  to  whose  entreaties,  and  to  whose  reproaches 
even  they  had  grown  accustomed  and  indifferent.  He  proceed- 
ed at  an  early  hour  upon  his  arrival  in  the  capital  to  the  Kavy 
Department.  Describing  his  reception  there,  in  a  private  letter 
he  says : 

Neav  York,  November  16,  1877. 
Mt  Deak  Snt :  I  enclose  extract  of  Mr.  Bushnell's  letter  to  Ex-Sec- 
retary Welles  concerning  the  Monitor.  As  Mr.  B.  only  relates  his  own 
personal  experience,  I  have  to  add  that  on  going  to  Washington  and 
entering  the  room  occupied  by  the  Board  over  which  Commodore 
Smith  presided  I  was  very  coldly  received,  and  learned  to  my  surprise 
that  said  Board  had  actually  rejected  my  Monitor  plan,  presented  by  Mr. 
Bushnell.  Indignant,  my  first  resolve  was  to  withdraw,  but  a  second 
thought  prompted  me  to  ask  why  the  plan  was  rejected.     Commodore 

*  This  is  printed  from  a  MS.  copy  found  among  Ericsson's  papers. 


INCEPTION   OF  THE  MONITOR.  253 

Smith  at  once  made  an  explanation  showing  that  the  vessel  lacked  sta- 
bility. This  warmed  me  up,  inducing  me  to  enter  on  an  elaborate  dem- 
onstration proving  that  the  vessel  had  great  stability.  My  blood  being 
well  up,  I  finished  my  demonstrations  by  thus  addressing  the  Board  : 

"Gentlemen,  after  what  I  have  said,  I  deem  it  your  duty  to  the 
country  to  give  me  an  order  to  build  the  vessel  before  I  leave  the 
room." 

The  three  commodores  then  entered  into  some  conversation  among 
themselves  which  I  did  not  take  note  of,  at  the  conclusion  of  which  I 
was  asked  to  call  again  at  1  p.m.  On  making  my  appearance  Commodore 
Paulding  called  me  into  his  room  and  in  a  very  cordial  manner  asked 
me  to  repeat  my  explanation  about  the  stability  of  the  vessel.  I  com- 
plied, having  in  the  meantime  drawn  a  diagram  presenting  the  question 
in  a  very  simple  form.  My  explanation  lasted  about  twenty  minutes,  at 
the  end  of  which  the  frank  and  generous  sailor  said  : 

"  Sir,  I  have  learned  more  about  the  stability  of  a  vessel  from  what 
you  have  said  than  I  ever  knew  before." 

Commodore  Smith  then  desired  me  to  call  again  later  in  the  day. 
On  making  my  second  appearance  I  was  asked  to  step  into  Secretary 
Welles's  room,  who  briefly  told  me  that  the  commodores  had  reported 
favorably  and  that  accordingly  he  would  have  the  contract  drawn  up 
and  sent  after  me  to  New  York,  desiring  me  in  the  meantime  to  proceed 
with  the  work.  I  returned  at  once,  and  before  the  contract  was  com- 
pleted the  keel-plate  of  the  intended  vessel  had  already  passed  through 
the  rollers  of  the  mill.  Little  did  I  dream  that  the  contract  would  con- 
tain a  clause  compelling  my  associates  to  guarantee  the  success  of  the 
vessel,  and  in  case  of  the  stipulations  about  invulnei-ability,  etc.,  etc.,  not 
being  fulfilled,  to  refund  the  money  advanced  by  the  Department  dur- 
ing the  progress  of  the  work.  Had  Secretary  Welles  on  calling  me 
into  his  room  told  me  that  such  a  guarantee  would  be  demanded,  the 
Monitor  would  not  have  been  built. 

One  word  more.  The  Monitor  was  brought  under  the  enemy's  guns 
at  Hampton  Roads  before  the  last  instalment  of  the  contract  had  been 
paid ! 

The  foregoing  will  enable  you  to  form  your  own  judgment  as  to  the 
merit  due  to  the  Navy  Department  in  the  Monitor  matter.  Let  me  ob- 
sei-ve,  however,  that  in  building  other  vessels  I  was  warmly  and  cordially 
supported  by  the  Assistant  Secretary,  Mr.  G.  V.  Fox. 

Yours  very  truly, 

J.  Ekicsson. 

P.S. — I  have  had  neither  time  nor  inclination  to  make  a  fair  copy  of 
the  foregoing  communication  in  my  own  hand. 

Captain  E.  P.  Dorr,  Buffalo. 


CHAPTER  XYI. 

BUILDDsG   THE   FIRST   MONITOR. 

Partnership  with  Messrs.  Bushnell,  Winslow,  and  Griswold. — Interview 
with  Thomas  F.  Rowland. — Laying  the  Keel  of  the  Monitor. — • 
Building  and  Launching  of  the  Vessel. — Mishaps  by  the  Way. — 
Herculean  Labors. — Doubts  and  Criticisms  of  Commodore  Smith. 
— Payments  for  the  Vessel  Delayed. — Cost  and  Profit. 

IX  a  letter  written  April  25,  1S62,  Ericsson  said  :  "A  more 
prompt  and  spirited  action  is  probably  not  on  record  in 
a  similar  case  than  that  of  the  Kavy  Department,  as  regards 
the  Monitor.  The  committee  of  naval  commanders  appointed 
by  the  Secretary  to  decide  on  the  plans  of  gunboats  laid  before 
the  Department  occupied  me  less  than  two  hours  in  explaining 
my  new  system.  In  about  two  hours  more  the  committee  had 
come  to  a  decision.  After  their  favorable  report  had  been  made 
to  the  Secretary  I  was  called  into  his  office,  where  I  was  detained 
less  than  five  minutes.  In  order  not  to  lose  any  time  the  Sec- 
retary ordered  me  to  '  go  ahead  at  once ! '  Consequently, 
while  the  clerks  of  the  Department  were  engaged  in  drawing  up 
the  formal  contract  the  iron  which  now  forms  the  keel-plate  of 
the  Monitor  was  drawn  through  the  rolling  mill,"  This  was 
said  at  a  time  when  the  country  was  all  aglow  with  the  success 
of  Ericsson's  opportune  little  vessel,  and  it  does  not  conflict 
with  the  fuller  statement  of  a  later  date  in  the  last  chapter. 

The  keel  was  laid  October  25,  1S61,  steam  was  applied  to 
the  engines  December  30th,  the  Monitor  *  was  launched  Jan- 

*  The  origin  of  the  name  is  explained  by  this  letter  to  Gustavus  V.  Fox, 
Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy  : 

New  York,  January  20,  1862. 

Sir  :  In  accordance  with  your  request,  I  now  submit  for  your  approbation 
a  name  for  the  floating  battery  at  Greenpoint.  The  impregnable  and  aggres- 
sive character  of  this  structure  will  admonish  the  leaders  of  the  Southern  Re- 
bellion that  the  batteries  ou  the  banks  of  their  rivers  will  no  longer  present 


BUILDING  THE   FIEST  MONITOR.  255 

uary  30, 1862,  and  practically  completed  February  15,  1862. 
She  went  on  her  first  trial  trip  and  was  turned  over  to  the 
Government  February  19, 1862.  She  was  put  into  commission 
under  the  command  of  Lieutenant  John  L.  Worden,  U.S.N., 
February  25,  1862.  Her  steering  gear  was  adjusted  on  a 
second  trial ;  on  her  third,  March  4th,  she  tried  her  guns,  and 
a  board  of  naval  officers  who  conducted  the  trial  reported  fa- 
vorably upon  her  performance.  Professor  MacCord,  who  was 
Ericsson's  assistant  at  the  time  he  built  the  Monitor,  has  given 
some  interesting  particulars  of  the  circumstances  attending  its 
construction. 

Ericsson  followed  it  witli  keen  and  critical  eye  until  the  launch,  and 
then  his  visits  to  the  ship-yard  became  infrequent.  As  the  ^' 3Ionitor 
type  "  of  engine  had  already  been  fully  tested  in  the  Judith,  the  Day- 
light, and  in  other  vessels,  he  contented  himself  with  the  report  of 
the  Government  engineers  on  the  one  in  the  new  battery.  When  the 
trial  trip  came,  neither  engine  nor  steering  gear  worked  properly,  and 
one  of  the  daily  papers  made  it  the  text  of  a  "  crushing  "  article  under 
the  heading  of  "  Ericsson's  Folly."  Her  designer  was  called  an  incapa- 
ble schemer,  and  sternly  rebuked  for  the  sin  of  wasting  the  resources  of 
the  country. 

The  motive  engines  were  not  in  proper  adjustment,  the  steering 
gear  would  not  work  freely,  and  between  the  two  the  vessel  proved  un- 
manageable. 

The  events  of  that  dismal  day  must  have  vexed  Ericsson's  very  soul, 
but  the  manner  in  which  he  bore  them  was  strikingly  characteristic. 
Had  they  been  trifling  things  he  would  have  been  exasperated,  as  his 
custom  was,  and  exasperating,  too,  when  small  affairs  went  wrong  ;  but 
under  heavy  burdens  his  broad  shoulders  never  bent,  and  he  looked  al- 
ways squarely  in  the  face  of  grave  misfortunes  with  calm  and  resolute 
eyes.  It  is  true  that  on  his  return  to  Franklin  Street,  where  he  then 
resided,  there  was  a  somewhat  portentous  cloud  upon  his  face,  and  no 
wonder  ;  but  it  was  not  the  forerunner  of  a  storm. 

barriers  to  the  entrance  of  the  Union  forces.  The  iron-clad  intruder  will 
thus  prove  a  severe  monitor  to  those  leaders.  But  there  are  other  leaders  who 
will  also  be  startled  and  admonished  by  the  booming  of  the  guns  from  the  im- 
pregnable iron  turret.  "Downing  Street"  will  hardly  view  with  indifference 
this  last  "Yankee  notion,"  this  monitor.  To  the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty  the 
new  craft  will  be  a  monitor,  suggesting  doubts  as  to  the  j)ropriety  of  complet- 
ing those  four  steel  clad  shi])S  at  three  and  a  half  million  apiece.  On  these 
and  many  similar  grounds,  I  propose  to  name  the  new  battery  Monitor. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

J.  Ericsson. 


256  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

The  drawings,  for  whose  accuracy  the  draughtsman  was  re- 
sponsible, were  found  to  be  correct  and  the  error  was  traced  to 
a  superintendent  of  the  engine  works,  whom  Captain  Ericsson 
had  once  described  as  "  too  stupid  to  make  a  bhinder."  Ills  er- 
ror was  so  quickly  rectified  that  it  alone  would  not  have  delayed 
the  vessel.  The  rudder  was  found  to  be  somewhat  over-bal- 
anced, the  weight  forward  of  the  rudder-post  being  too  great. 
It  was  not  the  time  nor  was  Ericsson  the  man  to  indultje  in 
idle  speculations  as  to  the  cause  of  this  error,  but,  says  Pro- 
fessor MacCord,  "  had  he  adopted  the  remedy  suggested  to  him 
it  is  morally  certain  that  the  battle  between  the  giant  and  the 
pygmy  would  not  have  occurred  when  and  where  it  did.  This 
remedy  was  neither  more  nor  less  than  the  replacing  of  the 
balanced  rudder  by  one  of  different  form.  I  do  not  know 
where  the  idea  originated,  nor  do  I  say  that  any  formal  pro- 
posal was  made,  but  in  some  way  the  Captain  became  aware  of 
an  intention  of  the  naval  authorities  to  have  the  vessel  put  in  the 
dry-dock  and  fitted  with  a  new  rudder.  The  hot  Scandinavian 
blood  flushed  his  cheek,  his  eyes  gleamed,  his  brow  darkened  ; 
and  this  time  the  storm  broke  in  all  its  fury.  With  the  full 
volume  of  his  tremendous  voice,  and  with  a  mighty  oath,  he 
thundered :  '  The  Monitor  is  mine,  and  I  say  it  shall  not  be 
done.'  Presently  he  added,  in  a  tone  of  supreme  contempt : 
'  Put  in  a  new  rudder  !  They  would  waste  a  month  in  doing 
that;  I  will  make  her  steer  just  as  easily  in  three  days.'  My 
recollection  is  that  it  was  done  in  less  time.  No  change  in  the 
rudder  was  even  thought  of,  and  the  change  in  the  steering, 
gear  was  the  simplest  possible.  .  .  .  Considering  how  pre- 
cious were  the  moments  then,  the  suggestion  of  a  new  rudder 
might  well  excite  his  indignation  and  disgust.  But  the  Captain's 
wrath  was  chiefly  roused  by  the  idea  of  any  official  interference 
with  the  vessel,  as  yet  unpaid  for  and  wholly  in  his  o\vn  hands; 
which  was  perfectly  natural  in  view  of  his  treatment  by  the 
Government  in  this  and  other  matters." 

To  add  to  the  chapter  of  blunders.  Engineer  Stimers  on  the 
trial  trip  temporarily  disabled  both  gun-carriages  by  turning 
the  compressor  wheels  the  wrong  way.  Far  the  most  impor- 
tant of  these  mishaps,  that  fixed  the  hour  of  the  Momtor''s  ap- 
pearance at  the  very  crisis  of  fate,  "  was  the  trouble  with  the 


BUILDING  THE   FIRST   MONITOR.  257 

steering-gear,  though  from  the  simplicity  of  the  remedy  it  might 
appear  the  most  insignificant ;  and  it  was  this  that  brought 
into  the  boldest  relief  the  prominent  traits  of  the  Captain's 
character.  His  keen  mechanical  instinct,  quick  decision,  firm- 
ness of  resolve,  his  fiery  spirit,  his  energy  in  action,  were  all 
conspicuous ;  but  all  these  were  dominated  by  self-reliance  and 
his  pride  in  originality. 

"  He  loved  to  do  his  own  work  in  his  own  way,  and  his 
fertility  of  expedient  was  something  marvellous ;  to  quote 
his  own  words  on  another  occasion,  '  If  I  ever  do  get  into 
a  scrape,  I  know  exactly  how  to  get  out  of  it ; '  and  men  un- 
like him,  as  most  men  are,  were  more  likely  than  he  to  follow 
the  lines  laid  down  by  others.  He  had  said,  '  The  Monitor 
is  mine,'  and  his  she  was,  in  another  and  to  him  a  far  dearer 
sense  ;  from  turret  to  keel-plate,  from  rudder-shoe  to  anchor- 
well,  every  distinctive  feature  was  the  creation  of  his  brain, 
every  detail  was  stamped  with  the  evidence  of  his  handi- 
work."* 

Under  the  hand  of  the  master  the  work  upon  the  battery 
was  pushed  to  a  speedy  completion,  in  spite  of  miscarriages  that 
would  have  been  fatal  to  less  able  management.  "  They  are 
amazed  at  Washington,"  wrote  Mr.  Griswold  on  January  8th, 
"  that  within  the  hundred  days  the  battery  will  be  com- 
pleted." 

Ericsson  was  officially  notified,  by  letter  dated  September 
21,  1861,  that  his  proposition  for  an  iron-clad  gunboat  had  been 
favorably  reported  upon,  and  the  actual  contract  for  the  con- 
struction of  the  battery  was  agreed  upon  October  4,  1861.  On 
September  27, 1861,  by  formal  contract  with  Messrs.  Bushnell, 
Griswold  <fe  Winslow,  he  stipulated  that  all  net  profits  or  losses 
were  to  be  divided  equally  among  the  four,  the  three  associates 
agreeing  to  advance  all  money  needed  for  the  construction  of 
the  vessel.  It  was  also  agreed  that  in  the  event  of  the  further 
construction  of  similar  batteries  the  same  division  of  loss  or 
profits  was  to  be  made. 

There  was  at  this  time  at  Greenpoint  on  the  East  River, 

*  Ericsson  and  His  Monitors,  by  Professor  Charles  W.  MacCord  (formerly 
Chief  Draughtsman  for  Captain  John  Ericsson),  North  American  Review, 
October,  1889. 


268  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSOW. 

opposite  New  York,  a  young  man  named  Thomas  F.  Rowland, 
who  had  just  commenced  business  as  a  ship-builder.  lie  was 
full  of  energy  and  enterprise,  anxious  to  identify  himself  with 
Government  work,  and  had  visited  "Washington  with  the  model 
of  a  vessel  he  proposed  to  build,  having  a  turret  mounted  on  a 
railroad  turntable.  Though  he  carried  with  him  an  influen- 
tial letter  of  introduction,  he  was  not  able  to  get  near  enough 
to  the  Secretary  of  the  ]S^avy  to  present  his  plan  until  he  met 
Mr.  Welles  one  evening  at  Willard's  Ilotel ;  then  he  had  the 
satisfaction  of  securing  a  prompt  hearing,  and  an  equally 
prompt  rejection  of  his  proposals.  On  his  return  to  Xew  \  ork, 
Mr.  Ilowland  was  invited  by  Captain  Ericsson  to  call  upon  him 
at  his  office  in  Franklin  Street.  There  he  was  shown  the  model 
sent  to  Xapoleon  in  ISo-i,  and  satisfied  that  he  could  claim  no 
priority  for  his  idea  of  a  turret,  lie  was  next  informed  of  the 
order  received  from  the  Government  for  an  iron-clad  battery. 
Then  turning  to  him,  Ericsson  said,  "  You  want  money  ;  I  want 
fame.  You  can  do  the  mechanical  work  on  this  vessel  in  your 
ship-yard,  but  it  is  my  conception,  and  it  must  be  understood 
that  it  was  built  here  in  my  parlor."  After  some  discussion  it 
was  agreed  that  T-i  cents  a  pound  should  be  paid  for  the  work 
upon  tlie  hull,  and  on  October  25th  an  agreement  to  that  effect 
was  entered  into  between  John  Ericsson  and  his  associates,  and 
Thomas  F.  Rowland,  Continental  Iron  Works,  Greenpoint, 
New  York. 

Another  account  states  that  on  the  day  preceding  this  in- 
terview three  strangers  had  appeared  at  Mr.  Rowland's  works 
and  sounded  him  upon  the  subject  of  the  price  he  would 
charge  for  building  the  hull  of  an  iron  vessel,  suggesting  4^ 
cents  per  pound.  When  he  called  upon  Ericsson  the  next 
day  he  found  the  great  engineer  with  head  and  body  bent 
over  his  drawing-table  absorbed  in  his  work  upon  the  Monitor 
plans.  Glancing  from  his  work  for  an  instant,  Ericsson  said 
abruptly  : 

"  Tom,  my  boy,  what  are  you  going  to  charge  me  to  build 
my  iron  vessel  ?  "  Thinking  of  his  previous  interview  with  his 
interrogators,  who  proved  to  be  Messrs.  Winslow,  Griswold  & 
Bnshnell,  Rowland  answered  at  a  venture:  "Tsine  cents  a 
pound."     "Tut,  tut,  Tom  !  "  cried  Ericsson,  without  lifting  his 


BUILDING  THE  FIKST  MONITOE.  269 

eyes  from  his  work,  "  it  must  be  done  for  7^  cents  ; "  and  this 
was  the  price  agreed  upon. 

The  contract  with  Mr.  Rowland  stipulated  that  the  work 
was  to  be  done  to  the  satisfaction  of  Captain  Ericsson,  who  re- 
served the  right  to  determine  what  number  of  men  should  be 
employed,  and  the  number  of  hours  they  must  work  to  com-, 
plete  the  contract  in  the  shortest  possible  time,  this  being  "in 
consideration  of  the  liberal  price  paid." 

Work  was  commenced  on  the  day  the  contract  was  signed, 
October  25,  1861.  The  vessel  was  launched  at  Mr,  Rowland's 
risk,  and  to  prevent  it  from  plunging  under  water  when  it  slid 
from  the  ways,  he  constructed  large  wooden  tanks  to  buoy  up 
the  stern  as  it  entered  the  water.  The  turret  was  entrusted  to 
the  Novelty  Iron  Works,  and  all  the  machinery  to  Delamater 
&  Co.  By  this  division  of  labor  work  was  hastened,  still  fur- 
ther time  being  gained  by  pushing  the  men  night  and  day. 
The  vessel  in  all  of  its  parts  was  designed  by  Ericsson.  Hull, 
turret,  steam  machinery,  anchor-hoister,  gun-carriages,  etc.,  all 
were  built  from  working  drawings  made  by  his  own  hands,  fur- 
nishing the  rare  example  of  such  a  structure  in  all  its  details 
emanating  from  a  single  man.  "  The  allegation  that  I  received 
aid  in  designing  the  Monitor,  and  other  work  during  the  war," 
said  Ericsson,  in  a  letter  of  May  28,  1877,  to  General  George 
B.  McClellan,  "  is  absolutely  false.  The  entire  labor  of  pre- 
paring the  original  working  plans  was  performed  by  myself, 
every  line  being  drawn  by  my  own  hand." 

The  details  were  sufficiently  numerous.  Besides  keeping 
the  several  establishments  at  work,  the  terms  of  the  agreements 
with  Mr.  Rowland  and  the  Xovelty  Works  required  that  they 
should  be  provided  with  the  material  which  they  were  to  put 
into  shape  for  the  hull  and  the  turret-plates,  bars,  rivets,  etc. 
Everything  had  been  so  carefully  arranged  by  the  able  engi- 
neer that  no  trouble  or  delay  was  experienced  in  carrying  out 
his  part  of  the  undertaking.  Within  one  hundred  working 
days  from  laying  the  keel-plates  of  the  hull,  the  vessel  was  com- 
pleted and  the  engines  put  in  motion  under  steam.  I^o  greater 
despatch  is  recorded  in  the  annals  of  mechanical  engineering. 
Tlie  battery  would  have  been  finished  even  sooner  than  it  was 
had  the  Government  been  more  prompt  in  its  payments  under 


260  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

the  contract,  and  enabled  the  contractors  to  keep  a  larger  part 
of  their  force  busied  nights  as  well  as  days.* 

Though  the  work  was  done  in  haste  it  was  not  done  care- 
lessly or  incompletely.  Time  was  saved,  not  by  neglect  of 
necessary  finish  but  by  simplifying  the  design  of  the  vessel  in 
every  way  to  meet  the  required  conditions.  Thus  the  hull  was 
merely  an  iron  tank,  with  the  sides  sloping,  instead  of  being 
rounded,  so  as  to  admit  of  employing  ordinary  mechanics  un- 
der proper  supervision.  Good  workmen  were  scarce,  for  the 
dominant  military  spirit  had  called  to  the  field  of  battle  the 
best  men  in  every  calling.  "While  the  work  progressed  at 
Greenpoint,  L.  I.,  Ericsson  was  there  every  day  superintending 
it,  and  nearly  all  day.  In  the  early  morning,  before  going  to 
the  ship-yard,  and  far  into  the  night  after  his  return,  he  was 
occupied  at  his  desk,  drawing  plans,  preparing  specifications, 
and  conducting  a  constant  correspondence  with  the  Navy  De- 
partment and  others.  A  story  is  told  in  this  connection  illus- 
trating his  extraordinary  physical  strength.  During  one  of  his 
visits  of  inspection  he  tripped  over  a  heavy  bar  of  iron.  Turn- 
ing to  two  workmen,  he  asked  them  to  remove  it ;  but  they 
said  it  was  too  heavy.  Kettled  at  this  refusal,  and  as  if  in  con- 
tempt for  the  excuse,  he  made  no  reply,  but  stooping  he  picked 
up  the  bar  with  his  own  hands,  carried  it  without  assistance 
across  the  shop,  and  threw  it  on  a  scrap-heap.  Amazed  at  this 
display  of  energy  on  the  part  of  a  sexagenarian  the  men  pro- 
cured assistance  at  noon  time  and  weighed  the  bar,  finding  that 
it  showed  upon  the  scale  nearly  six  hundred  pounds. 

From  Ericsson's  desk  the  drawings,  numbering  at  least  one 
hundred,  went  directly  to  the  workshop,  without  waiting  to  be 
traced.     Yet  the  plans  were  none  of  them  mere  copies  from 

*  A  similar  feat  had  previously  been  performed  in  England,  according  to 
Sir  Thomas  Brassey,  when  in  18o5-5G,  during  the  Crimean  war,  three  iron- 
clad floating  batteries  of  2,000  tons  burden  and  300  horse  power,  the  Thunder- 
holt,  Erebus,  and  Terror,  were  built  by  private  ship-yards  in  three  months. 
What  he  includes  in  the  term  built  he  does  not  explain  however.  The 
Monitor  was  a  vessel  of  770  tons.  Her  extreme  length  was  172  feet; 
breadth,  41 J  feet;  depth  of  hold,  \\\  feet;  draught  of  water,  10^  feet; 
inside  diameter  of  turret,  20  feet  ;  height  of  turret,  9  feet ;  thickness  of 
turret,  8  inches  ;  side  armor,  5  inches ;  deck  plating,  1  inch ;  diameter  of 
propellers  (2),  9  feet ;  diameter  of  steam  cylinders,  36  inches ;  length  of 
stroke,  2G  inches. 


BUILDING   THE   FIRST   MONITOR. 


261 


existing  models.  Everything  had  to  be  contrived  anew,  to  meet 
the  wholly  novel  conditions  of  life  in  a  submerged  structure. 
Even  the  waste  of  the  ship's  crew  was  gotten  rid  of  by  an  in- 
genious contrivance,  with  an  air-pump  attached.  By  this 
means  the  natural  law  of  hydrostatics  was  so  far  overcome  as 
to  admit  of  openings  in  the  hull  below  the  water-line.  "Waste 
matter  was  dropped  into  a  pipe  closed  at  the  lower  end.  The 
upper  end  of  the  pipe  was  then  shut,  the  lower  end  opened  in 
its  turn  and  the  force-pump  turned  on,  driving  out  the  water 
in  the  pipe  with  its  contents.  A  ship's  surgeon  who  omitted 
an  essential  part  of  this  ceremonial  found  himself  suddenly  pro- 
jected into  the  air  at  the  end  of  a  column  of  water  rushing  up 
from  the  depths  of  the  ocean  and  pouring  into  the  ship. 


The  Original   Monitor. 


It  was  estimated  by  Isaac  Newton,  the  first  engineer  of  the 
Monitor,  that  she  contained  at  least  forty  patentable  contriv- 
ances. Ericsson  was  urged  by  Mr.  Newton  to  secure  patents 
for  these,  but  he  declined  to  do  so.  He  was  strangely  neglect- 
ful all  through  life  of  this  means  of  protecting  his  property 
rights.  Numerous  as  were  his  patents,  they  by  no  means  rep- 
resented the  full  measure  of  his  ingenuity,  and  many  of  them 
were  taken  out  to  secure  for  himself,  as  well  as  for  others,  the 
right  to  use  his  own  inventions. 

Ericsson's  inventions  were  not  the  result  of  waking  dreams, 
but  of  the  studious  application  of  the  resources  of  a  mind  well 
stored  with  engineering  and  mecluxnical  lore  to  the  solution  of 
new  problems.  He  did  not  disregard  precedent  or  experience, 
but  he  compelled  them  to  his  service  instead  of  following  them 
with  blind  obedience.     It  was  his  habit  to  wait  until  he  was 


262  LIFE   OF   JOHN   EKICSSOX. 

ready  to  present  his  engineering  conceptions  in  practical  form 
before  announcing  them.  Thus  thej  had  opportunity'  to  ripen 
in  his  mind  and  to  gain  in  clearness  and  completeness  with 
growing  experience.  Tlie  conception  of  a  Moriitor,  as  part  of 
his  mental  history,  was  nearly  half  a  century  old  when  it  was 
put  into  execution  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  war. 

"  You  assume  correctly,"  he  wrote  to  Mr.  G.  Y.  Fox,  on  Oc- 
tober 5,  1S75,  "  that  the  plan  of  the  Monitor  was  based  on  the 
observations  of  the  behavior  of  timber  in  our  great  Swedish 
lakes.  I  found  that  while  the  raftsman  in  his  elevated  cab- 
in experienced  very  little  motion,  the  seas  breaking  over  his 
nearly  submerged  craft,  these  seas  at  the  same  time  worked 
the  sailing  vessels  nearly  on  their  beam  ends." 

Working  as  he  did,  from  first  to  last,  upon  plans  already 
matured  in  his  own  mind,  if  they  were  not  committed  to  paper, 
Ericsson  always  resented  the  imputation  that  his  Monitor  must 
be  an  imperfect  vessel  because  it  was  built  in  haste.  "  ]So  im 
provement,"  he  said  in  1867,  "has  been  made  in  the  original 
Monitor.  On  the  contrary,  that  vessel  was  both  theoretically 
and  practically  a  more  perfect  vessel  for  defence  than  any  of 
the  numerous  monitors  afterward  built  by  me,  excepting  only 
the  pilot-house."  This  was  said  in  a  letter  written  by  his  sec- 
retary at  his  dictation,  and  concluding  as  follows  : 

"  Respecting  this  structure,  Captain  Ericsson  particularly 
directs  me  to  say,  in  reply  to  your  impertinent  insinuation  that 
the  present  pilot-house  of  the  monitor  vessels  is  not  his  inven- 
tion, that  it  originated  with  him  and  was  perfected  by  him,  and 
that  whoever  insinuates  that  this  structure  in  its  conception, 
theory,  and  every  part  of  its  detail,  is  not  the  invention  of  Cap- 
tain Ericsson,  utters  a  gross  falsehood." 

An  entry  in  Ericsson's  diary  showed  that  in  August,  1S61, 
previous  to  the  acceptance  of  his  plans  by  the  Xavy  Depart- 
ment, he  spent  a  day  in  planning  a  stationary  pilot-house  to  be 
placed  on  the  top  of  the  revolving  turret.*  Time  did  not  admit 
of  the  introduction  of  this  feature  into  the  original  Monitor, 
and  it  was  reserved  for  use  in  those  of  later  construction.  The 
complications  involved  in  adapting  it  to  its  intended  position, 

*  A  copy  of  this  entrj  was  published  bj  Captain  Ericsson  in  the  Army  and 
Navy  Journal. 


BUILDING   THE   FIRST   MOT^ITOR.  263 

as  well  as  the  lightness  of  the  original  turret,  made  it  necessary 
to  adopt  the  necessary  expedient  which  was  justly  subjected  to 
the  criticism  of  those  who  had  to  fight  the  Monitor.  It  is  not 
true,  however,  that  the  plan  of  putting  the  pilot-house  on  top 
of  the  turret  was  first  suggested  by  the  engineer  of  the  Monitor, 
after  the  vessel  had  gone  into  action. 

Necessary  changes  were  made  in  the  plans  of  the  vessel  as 
the  work  progressed,  to  meet  the  emergencies  of  the  time,  and 
when  she  was  completed  slight  defects  were  discovered,  but 
these  were  easily  remedied.  The  constructor  was  favored  with 
numerous  suggestions  for  change  and  supposed  improvement, 
none  of  which  were  heeded. 

Ericsson's  work  during  that  three  months  was  herculean. 
Nerves  and  sinews  needed  to  be  of  steel.  The  least  halting, 
even  trifling  delay,  confusion  of  mind,  or  weakness  of  body,  and 
the  story  of  Hampton  Roads  might  not  have  been  written.  It 
was  well  for  the  United  States  that  the  question  how  to  build 
an  impregnable  fighting  vessel  was  entrusted  to  an  engineer 
of  such  versatility,  thorough  experience,  and  freedom  from 
prejudice  in  favor  of  existing  forms.  The  entire  resources  of 
modern  engineering  knowledge  were  thus  brought  to  bear  upon 
the  solution  of  the  problem  of  an  impregnable  battery,  armed 
with  guns  of  the  heaviest  calibre  then  known,  hull  shot-proof 
from  stem  to  stern,  rudder  and  propeller  protected  against  the 
enemy's  fire,  and  above  all  having  the  advantage  of  light 
draught. 

It  was  proposed  to  build  a  vessel  that  could  navigate  the 
shallow  Southern  rivers,  and  the  draught  was  limited  to  eleven 
feet.  This  absolutely  compelled  the  adoption  of  the  plan 
of  a  sunken  hull.  It  was  manifestly  impossible  to  carry  the 
weight  required  to  protect  a  high-sided  vessel.  The  adoption 
of  a  covered  cylindrical  turret  followed  logically,  from  the 
necessity  for  protecting  guns  and  gunners.  The  plan  of  revolv- 
ing this  turret  on  a  vertical  axis,  was  adopted  to  secure  an  all- 
around  fire  while  the  vessel  remained  stationary,  as  it  was 
clearly  impracticable  to  manoeuvre  the  battery  in  narrow 
rivers.  The  slight  draught  of  the  vessel  brought  the  propeller 
and  rudder  near  the  surface ;  to  protect  these  the  deck  was 
extended  over  the  hull  at  the  stern  and  also  at  the  bow,  where 


264  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

the  anchor,  lianging  in  a  cylindrical  well,  could  be  lowered  and 
lifted  bj  machinery  within  the  hull  without  exposing  the 
crew. 

The  steam  machinery,  as  well  as  the  quarters  of  the  crew, 
were  located  below  the  water-line  to  protect  them  against  shot, 
and  they  were  further  protected  by  extending  the  armored  part 
of  the  vessel  some  distance  over  the  sides.  AVith  this  overhang, 
shot  could  not  reach  the  vulnerable  hull.  Thus,  as  J.  Scott 
Russell  in  his  work  on  "Xaval  Architecture"  declares,  the 
Monitor  is  "  a  creation  altogether  original,  peculiarly  American  ; 
admirablj'  adapted  to  the  special  purpose  which  gave  it  birth. 
Like  most  American  inventions,  use  had  been  allowed  to  dic- 
tate terms  of  construction,  and  purpose,  not  prejudice,  has 
been  allowed  to  rule  invention."  The  monitors  are,  Mr. 
Russell  further  says,  "  successful  by  the  rigidity  and  precis- 
ion with  which  they  fit  the  end  and  fulfil  the  purpose  which 
was  their  aim.  By  thus  frankly  accepting  the  conditions  he 
could  not  control,  the  American  did  his  work  and  built  his 
fleet." 

The  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Yards  and  Docks,  who  rep- 
resented the  ^avy  Department  in  the  construction  of  the 
Monitor,  was  Commodore  Joseph  Smith,  a  noble  sailor  who 
had  grown  old  in  the  service  which  he  entered  as  a  midship- 
man in  the  year  1809.  He  had  been  an  officer  for  more  than 
half  a  century,  was  thoroughly  in  sympathy  with  the  traditions 
and  prejudices  of  his  profession,  and  though  the  earnest  elo- 
quence and  able  demonstration  of  Ericsson  had  for  the  moment 
convinced  his  judgment,  there  was  an  under-current  of  doubt, 
and  this  kept  him  constantly  uneasy  and  distnistful.  "  The 
old  Commodore  is  fidgety  at  times,"  wrote  one  of  Ericsson's 
friends  from  "Washington,  "  and  may  provoke  you  by  his  own 
anxieties,  but  he  has  confidence  in  you,  and  he  has  no  confi- 
dence in  anybody  else.  So  give  the  old  man  his  tether,  and 
let  him  fret  a  little  when  he  feels  like  it." 

This  encouragement  to  forbearance  seems  to  have  been 
needed,  for  the  suggestions,  doubts,  and  forebodings  showered 
upon  Ericsson  from  Washington,  must  have  been  trying  to  a 
man  so  overwhelmed  with  the  responsibilities  of  a  venture- 
some undertaking,  in  the  success  of  which  was  involved  not 


BUILDIISTG  THE   FIKST   MONITOR.  266 

only  his  own  reputation  but  the  interests  of  a  nation.    Septem- 
ber 25,  1861,  Commodore  Smith  wrote : 

I  am  in  great  trouble  from  what  I  have  recently  learned,  that  the 
concussion  in  the  turret  will  be  so  great  that  men  cannot  remain  in  it 
and  work  the  guns  after  a  few  fires  with  shot.  I  jpresume  you  under- 
stand the  subject  better  than  I  do. 

It  would  have  been  well  if  he  could  have  rested  content 
with  this  conclusion,  but  his  own  conversion  was  recent,  if 
hopeful,  and  his  convictions  were  too  feeble  to  enable  him  to 
resist  the  doubting  suggestions  of  others.  Ericsson's  judgment 
upon  this  point  was  not  founded  on  theory ;  it  was  the  result 
of  personal  experience  in  firing  heavy  guns  from  little  huts 
while  he  was  an  officer  in  the  Swedish  army.  Yet  he  had  the 
greatest  difficulty  in  dispelling  this  obvious  fallacy,  as  to  the 
effect  of  firing  guns  in  a  turret  with  muzzle  protruding,  and  it 
is  not  strange  that  Commodore  Smith  should  have  been  affected 
by  it.     A  few  days  later,  October  11th,  he  M-rote  : 

I  understand  that  computations  have  been  made  by  expert  naval 
architects  of  the  displacement  of  your  vessel,  and  the  result  arrived 
at  is  that  she  will  not  float  with  the  load  you  propose  to  put  upon 
her,  and  if  she  would  she  could  not  stand  upright  for  want  of  stability, 
nor  attain  a  speed  of  four  knots.  Eelying  ui^on  your  calculations,  I 
had  no  computation  of  displacement  made.  I  have  had  some  mis- 
giving as  to  her  stability  as  well  as  sea-worthiness  on  account  of  the 
abrupt  termination  of  iron  to  the  wooden  vessel ;  I  have  thought  the 
angle  should  have  been  filled  up  with  wood  thus, 
to  ease  the  motion  of  the  vessel  in  rolling.  I  be- 
lieve when  you  look  into  cause  and  efi'ect  you  will 
come  to  the  same  conclusion.  But  if  the  whole 
thing  is  to  be  a  failure  this  will  be  of  little  conse- 
quence. I  am  extremely  anxious  about  the  success  of  this  battery. 
The  Government  wants  some  dozen  of  them  if  they  prove  successful. 
I  want  to  go  to  New  York,  but  I  am  now  so  afliicted  with  rheumatism 
I  can  but  barely  walk. 

This  was  a  personal  letter,  and  in  an  official  communication 
dated  the  same  day  Ericsson  was  reminded  that,  "  You  are  re- 
sponsible for  the  successful  working  of  your  vessel  in  all  its 
parts."  Three  days  later  it  was  suggested  that  the  vessel  would 
*'  prove  a  failure,"  as  the  anxious  Commodore  had  calculated  her 


266  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

displacement  and  found  that  she  would  not  float.  His  estimate 
of  her  displacement  was  thirteen  hundred  tons ;  the  actual  dis- 
placement of  tlie  vessel,  when  launched  and  in  fighting  trim, 
with  her  stores,  guns,  and  ammunition  on  board,  was  one  thou- 
sand tons  with  321  square  feet  of  immersed  midship  section. 
The  Commodore  suggested  such  a  cliange  in  the  vessel  as 
might  in  his  opinion  "  save  her  from  the  possibility  of  fail- 
ure ;  "  but  which  would,  in  the  judgment  of  her  better  informed 
designer,  have  sacrificed  one  of  the  essential  features  of  his 
system. 

"  I  shall  be  subjected  to  extreme  mortification,"  wrote  Com- 
modore Smith  in  this  letter,  "  if  the  vessel  does  not  come  up 
to  the  contract  in  all  respects ;  having  taken  for  granted  as 
correct  your  statement  of  the  power  and  capacity  of  the  battery, 
without  going  into  the  calculations  of  weight  and  displacement, 
and  relying  on  the  validity  of  the  contract,  I  assumed  a  great 
responsibility  in  recommending  in  haste  (to  meet  the  demands 
of  the  service)  your  plan.  Your  specifications  state  the  engine 
to  have  a  power  of  four  hundred  horse.  I  am  advised  that 
that  power  will  not  give  the  speed  you  guarantee.  I  am  aware 
of  your  known  reputation  for  scientific  and  practical  skill  as  an 
engineer,  hence  the  reliance  I  placed  upon  you." 

It  does  not  appear  to  have  occurred  to  the  worthy  Commo- 
dore that  "  extreme  mortification,"  trying  as  that  must  be, 
would  be  one  of  the  least  of  Ericsson's  sufferings  if  he  should 
fail  in  his  great  undertaking.  And  more  than  this,  that  he 
had  a  claim  to  honor,  and  confidence,  and  consideration  beyond 
any  that  mere  oflficial  position  could  give  him.  With  an  enor- 
mous burden  upon  him,  and  every  minute  intensely  occupied, 
Ericsson  was  obliged  to  deprive  himself  of  necessary  rest  and 
sleep  that  he  might  act  as  schoolmaster  for  the  naval  veteran, 
and  guide  his  timid  steps  along  the  path  he  was  himself  tread- 
ing with  the  assurance  of  ripened  experience.  On  October 
11th,  he  sent  to  Commodore  Smith  this  essay  on  stability,  which 
he  found  frequent  occasion  to  repeat  in  his  after-experience 
with  naval  experts. 


I  have  the  honor  of  laying  before  you  the  enclosed  transverse  section 
of  my  battery  for  the  purjjose  of  jjroving  its  stability.   In  order  to  do  this 


BUILDING  THE  FIRST  MONITOR.  267 

in  the  simplest  manner,  the  vessel  is  represented  as  being  heeled  over  one 
foot  at  the  extreme  beam.  By  reference  to  the  plan  you  will  find  that 
at  this  extent  of  heeling  over,  the  centre  of  gravity  of  the  turret  with 
contents  is  3  inches  out  of  perpendicular,  while  the  centre  of  gravity  of 
the  vessel  and  machinery,  deviates  from  the  perpendicular  line  If  inch 
in  the  opposite  direction.  The  weight  of  turret  being  less  than  one- 
third  of  that  of  the  vessel  and  machinery,  it  follows  that  the  latter  over- 
balances the  former,  the  eflfect  of  which  is  to  put  the  vessel  on  even 
beam.  The  force  required  to  heel  the  vessel  over  as  represented  on  the 
plan,  you  will  thus  perceive,  receives  no  aid  from  the  leaning  of  the 
turret. 

The  exact  amount  of  stability  we  can  ascertain  by  calculating  how 
much  more  water  is  displaced  on  the  low  than  on  the  high  side  of  the 
vessel.  At  the  heeling  over  assumed,  one  foot,  that  quantity  will  be  half 
the  area  of  the  vessel  at  water-line,  or  ^-2^^  =  2,913  cubic  feet,  which 
divided  by  35  (cubic  feet  per  ton)  gives  83  tons  of  water  displaced  on 
one  side  more  than  on  the  other.  Now,  the  centre  of  gravity  of  the  water 
thus  displaced  is  11|  feet  from  the  centre  line,  and  hence  at  that  point 
it  would  require  a  weight  of  83  tons  to  heel  the  vessel  as  shown.  Were 
the  weight  applied  at  the  extreme  beam,  46  tons  only  would  be  required 
— 46  tons  is  the  weight  of  690  men  (at  15  men  to  the  ton,  the  usual  aver- 
age)— and  hence  to  heel  my  battery  over  a  single  foot,  690  men  must 
stand  at  the  very  extreme  of  the  deck.  It  will  be  safe  to  assert  that 
there  is  not  now  in  the  service  of  the  United  States  any  vessel  of  equal 
size  that  can  compare  in  stability  to  the  vessel  under  consideration. 

Commodore  Smith's  reliance  upon  Ericsson's  ability  was  not 
sufficient,  however,  to  dispel  his  fears.  "  Excuse  me  for  being 
60  troublesome,"  he  wrote  October  15th,  "  but  mj  great  anxiety 
must  plead  my  excuse.  I  have  been  urging  the  Ordnance  De- 
partment to  furnish  the  guns  for  your  vessel,  but  the  knowing 
ones  say  that  the  guns  will  never  be  used  on  her."  "  In  a 
heavy  sea,"  he  wrote  again,  October  ITtli,  "one  side  of  the  bat- 
tery will  rise  out  of  the  water  or  the  sea  recede  from  it,  and 
the  wooden  vessel  underneath  will  strike  the  water  with  such 
force  when  it  comes  down  or  rolls  back,  as  to  knock  the  people 
on  board  off  their  feet."  Unconvinced  by  Ericsson's  demonstra- 
tions, the  Commodore  ended  the  discussion  of  this  branch  of 
the  question  by  a  letter  dated  October  19,  1861,  in  which  he 
said  oracularly  :  "  We  shall  see,  I  have  nothing  more  to  say  on 
the  subject  but  that  the  Government  will  fall  back  on  the  con- 
tract in  case  of  failure." 

But  even  this  comfortable  assurance  was  not  sufficient  to 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

stay  his  criticism.  Returning  to  the  subject  October  2l8t  he 
said :  *'  The  more  I  reflect  upon  jour  battery,  the  more  I  am 
fearful  of  her  efliciency."  The  "  overhang"  especially  was  full 
of  gloomy  suggestions,  and  he  was  confident  that  the  iron  plating 
of  the  battery  would  settle  the  sides  of  the  wooden  vessel  be- 
neath "  so  that  her  deck  would  after  a  time  become  much 
curved  and  finally  break." 

The  prospect  of  asphyxia  for  the  dwellers  on  the  battery  also 
disquieted  the  Bureau  Chief.  "Your  plan  of  ventilation  ap- 
pears plausible,"  he  wrote,  "  but  sailors  do  not  fancy  living  under 
water  without  breathing  in  sunshine  occasionally.  I  propose 
a  temporary  house  be  constructed  on  deck  which  will  not  in- 
crease the  weight  of  the  vessel  more  than  eight  or  ten  tons." 
In  answer  to  similar  complaints  of  neglect  of  ventilation  the 
answer  was  made  that  "  more  attention  was  paid  to  the  ventila- 
tion of  the  first  Monitor  than  to  its  fighting  qualities."  Commo- 
dore Smith's  letters  are  quoted,  not  to  reflect  upon  their  author, 
but  to  show  the  encouragement  under  which  Ericsson  labored 
during  this  crisis  of  his  life.  Not  a  single  word  of  good  cheer 
appears  in  the  series  of  letters  sent  to  him  from  Washington, 
but  he  was  kept  constantly  in  mind  that  his  fortune  and  his 
reputation  would  be  the  forfeit  if  he  failed  to  fulfil  the  utmost 
letter  of  his  contract.  December  5,  1861,  came  a  letter  from 
the  anxious  Commodore  saying : 

"  I  saw  Mr.  Everett  to-day,  who  says  your  turret  will  not  be 
ready  to  leave  his  shop  short  of  thirty  days.  I  beg  of  you  to 
push  up  the  work.  I  shall  demand  heavy  forfeiture  for  delay 
over  the  stipulated  time  of  completion.  You  have  only  thirty- 
nine  days  left.'''' 

The  time  stipulated  in  the  contract  was  exceeded  a  few 
days,  for  Ericsson  was  not  able  to  telegraph  until  January 
23d  that  the  vessel  was  ready  for  launching.  Meanwhile 
came  a  letter,  dated  January  14,  1862,  saying,  "  the  time 
for  the  completion  of  the  shot-proof  battery,  according  to 
the  stipulations  of  your  contract,  expired  on  the  12th  in- 
stant." 

If  the  completion  of  the  Monitor  was  delayed  a  few  days 
beyond  the  date  stipulated  in  the  contract  this  fact  would 
seem  to  be  sufficiently  accounted   for  by  this  communication 


BUILDING  THE  FIRST   MONITOR.  269 

addressed  to  Commodore  Smith  by  Ericsson  January  4,  1862  : 
"  I  beg  most  respectfully  to  observe  that  while  the  principal 
outlay  has  now  been  incurred  in  building  the  battery,  only  $37,- 
500  have  as  yet  been  paid  by  the  navy  agent,  and  that  amount 
was  not  obtained  until  five  weeks  after  the  presentation  of  your 
order.  In  view  of  the  large  amount  of  funds  thus  called  for 
from  private  sources,  my  contemplated  oi'ganization  and  opera- 
tion by  what  is  called  night  gangs  has  been  to  some  extent 
frustrated." 

The  total  contract  price  for  the  vessel  was  $275,000,  and 
this  was  to  be  paid  in  five  instalments  of  $50,000  each  and  one 
of  $25,000,  twenty-five  per  cent,  being  reserved  from  each  pay- 
ment as  security  for  the  completion  of  the  vessel.  The  war- 
rants for  the  first  of  these  payments  of  $37,500  ($50,000 
less  twenty-five  per  cent.)  was  drawn  by  the  Navy  Department 
November  25,  1861,  and  the  others  followed  one  another  on 
the  following  dates,  viz. :  second  payment,  December  3d ;  third, 
December  17th  ;  fourth,  January  3, 1862  ;  fifth,  February  6th. 
Finally,  March  3d,  six  days  before  the  fight  at  Hampton  Roads, 
a  warrant  for  the  sixth  and  last  payment  of  $25,000  was  drawn. 
Eut  the  dates  drawing  the  warrants  and  of  the  actual  receipt 
of  the  money  were  so  widely  separated  that  the  fourth  pay- 
ment was  due  before  the  money  for  the  first  had  actually  been 
received.  This  necessitated  advances  which  Mr.  Winslow,  one 
of  the  associates,  was  able  to  make  through  his  oflficial  connec- 
tion with  a  bank  in  Troy. 

An  estimate  in  Ericsson's  handwriting,  dated  December  26, 
1861,  shows  that  on  that  date,  and  thus  before  the  actual  re- 
ceipt of  the  first  money  on  Government  account,  $158,043.42 
had  been  expended  on  the  battery.  A  portion  of  this  was 
represented  by  bills  not  yet  paid.  This  amount  had  increased 
on  February  11,  to  $180,168,  and  there  was  owing,  according  to 
estimate,  $14,832,  making  the  total  cost,  as  estimated  at  that 
date,  $195,000.  The  actual  figures  were  $195,142.60,  leaving  a 
net  profit  of  $79,857.40.  Of  this  Ericsson  received  as  his  one- 
fourth  $19,964.35,  besides  $1,000  for  engineering  services. 
This  result  was  due  to  the  fact  that  he  was  not  only  a  skilful 
engineer  but  an  experienced  constructor  and  contractor.  With 
the  price  of  everything  changing  with  the  fluctuations  of  gold, 


270  LIFE   OF   JOHN    ERICSSON. 

and  Government  credit  in  doubt,  it  was  a  hazardous  business  to 
estimate  upon  Government  work. 

The  Eureau  of  Yards  and  Docks  showed  so  strong  a  dispo- 
sition to  hold  the  associates  in  the  building  of  the  Monitor  to 
the  strictest  letter  of  their  contract  that  Mr.  Griswold,  wlio  was 
the  banker  of  the  concern,  naturally  became  uneasy,  and  on 
February  1,  1S62,  wrote  to  Ericsson  from  Troy,  as  follows  : 

I  think  we  should  take  decided  grouud  with  the  Navy  Department 
that  before  we  place  our  batteiy  in  their  hands  (before  it  passes  from 
our  possession)  we  must  have  the  amount  due  us  less  the  twenty-tive 
per  cent,  reservation.  Unless  we  do  this  there  is  no  predicting  when 
we  shall  get  our  pay.  They  want  the  battery  at  once,  and  if  they  take 
it  the  least  they  can  do  is  to  pay  what  is  our  due.  On  all  (^pisidercUions 
this  should  certainly  be  done. 

On  February  Sth  the  ever-vigilant  Commodore  Smith  wrote 
from  Washington  an  official  letter,  saying : 

I  shall  submit  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  whether  or  not  further 
payments  shall  be  approved  and  drawn  for  before  a  test  of  the  vessel 
shall  have  been  made,  as  the  contract  in  regard  to  time  has  been  for- 
feited. I  trust  the  test  will  soon  warrant  the  payment  in  full,  but  the 
Secretary  must  decide.  I  am  aware  that  you  have  used  your  best  exer- 
tions to  forward  the  comi^letion  of  the  vessel. 

Fortunately  the  Secretary  was  liberal  in  his  view  of  the 
case,  and  on  March  5th,  four  days  before  the  contest  in  Hamp- 
ton Roads,  Commodore  Smith  wrote:  "I  enclose  your  bill 
for  the  si.xth  and  last  instalment  approved  for  SIS, 750  ($25,- 

000  less  twenty-five  per  cent.),  and  have  this  day  drawn  in  favor 
of  the  navy  agent  at  !New  York  for  that  amount. 

The  amount  reserved  was  $68,750,  and  this  was  not  paid, 
even  by  warrant,  until  March  14,  1862,  or  nearly  a  week  after 
the  Monitor  had  proved  her  quality  in  one  of  the  most  striking 
naval  engagements  the  world  has  ever  known,  and  the  fame  of 
Ericsson  was  sounded  the  world  over. 

On  October  26,  1861,  Commodore  Smith  had  written  : 

You  are  the  last  man  I  desire  to  contest  engineering  questions  with. 

1  am  fully  aware  of  your  scientific  knowledge,  skill,  and  experience.    In 
the  matter  of  the  success  of  the  iron-clad  vessels,  my  anxiety  is  very 


BUILDING   THE   FIEST   MONITOE.  271 

great.  I  make  suggestions,  offer  objections  whicla  are  only  intended  for 
youi"  consideration,  but  in  nowise  to  control  your  action.  The  respon- 
sibility rests  with  you,  and  I  •would  not  change  it  if  I  could.  Excuse 
my  interference  thus  far,  if  I  have  annoyed  you,  and  I  will  be  silent  in 
future. 

The  anxiety  here  expressed  was  shared  by  the  entire  Gov- 
ernment, and  at  Washington  every  stage  in  the  progress  of  the 
vessel  toward  completion  was  watched  with  the  keenest  inter- 
est. The  story  of  the  progress  of  the  Confederate  ram  "RV- 
ginia  had  come  through  the  lines,  and  if  faith  in  the  Moni- 
tor was  not  abounding  she  was  all  the  country  had  to  depend 
upon  in  the  coming  contest  with  the  Southern  iron-clad.  It 
was  with  a  sio;h  of  relief  no  doubt  that  Ericsson's  censor  wrote 
from  the  Bureau  of  Yards  and  Docks  on  January  29th,  just  as 
the  Monitor  was  completed  : 

The  Merrimac  is  out  of  dock  and  ready  for  her  trial  trip.  I  think 
the  wrought-iron  shot  of  the  Ericsson  battery  will  smash  in  her  2i-inch 
plates,  provided  she  can  get  near  enough  to  her,  while  the  9-inch  shot 
and  shells  of  the  Merrimac  will  not  upset  your  turret.  Let  us  have  the 
test  as  soon  as  possible,  for  that  ship  will  be  a  troublesome  customer  to 
our  vessels  in  Hampton  Eoads. 

The  criticisms  of  Commodore  Smith,  though  always  well 
meant,  were  suflBciently  annoying.  In  spite  of  them  the  high- 
est praise  is  to  be  given  to  this  gallant  sailor  for  the  measure 
of  faith  he  had  in  the  Monitor,  and  his  name  will  be  associated 
with  Ericsson's  as  that  of  one  who  helped  him  to  his  opportun- 
ity. The  character  of  the  man  is  illustrated  by  a  story  told  of 
him  in  the  account  given  by  Gideon  Welles  of  his  experience 
as  Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

On  Sunday  March  9,  1862,  after  the  despatch  had  been 
received  at  Washington  to  the  effect  that  the  Meri^imac  had 
come  out  of  Korfolk  and  destroyed  the  Cumherland  and  the 
Congress  lying  off  Fort  Monroe,  Secretary  Welles  returned 
from  the  Department  to  his  home,  and  stopping  at  St.  John's 
Church,  in  front  of  the  White  House,  called  out  Commodore 
Smith  who  was  attending  service  there.  He  briefly  related 
what  had  taken  place  and  finally  said  that  the  Congress,  com- 
manded by  Smith's  son,  Joseph,  had  surrendered.     "  What !  " 


272  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

exclaimed  the  veteran,"  the  Congj^ess  surrendered  ;  then  Joe  is 
dead.''  The  Secretary  tried  to  cahu  his  deep  emotion,  and  told 
him  that  perhaps  his  son  was  saved.  "  Oh,  no,"  he  exclaimed, 
"  you  don't  know  Joe  as  I  do — he  never  would  surrender  his 
ship."  And  he  did  not.  He  was  killed  early  in  the  action  and 
his  flag  was  struck  by  other  hands.  To  such  a  father  of  such 
a  sou  much  more  might  well  be  forgiven. 


CHAPTER  XYII. 

BATTLE   BETWEEN   THE   MONITOR   AND   MERRIMAC. 

Professional  Ignorance  on  the  Subject  of  Armored  Vessels. — Ericsson's 
Mastery  of  the  Subject. — The  Monitor  Intended  for  Farragut's  Fleet 
before  New  Orleans. — Ordered  to  Washington. — Stopped  en  route 
at  Fort  Monroe. — Timely  Arrival  and  Encounter  with  the  Merri- 
mac. — Turns  the  Tide  of  Battle. 

WHILE  the  Confederate  Government  at  Richmond  was 
paying  from  its  lean  treasury  the  expense  of  complet- 
ing an  armor-clad,  designed  to  break  the  blockade  and  secure 
the  much-needed  recognition  of  foreign  governments,  the 
Navy  Department  at  Washington  was  trying  to  save  a  portion 
of  its  appropriation  of  a  million  and  a  half  by  throwing 
upon  an  association  of  private  gentlemen  the  responsibility  for 
the  success  or  failure  of  the  attempt  which  it  had  expressly 
sanctioned  to  meet  the  impending  danger.  Our  beneficent 
Government  assumed  toward  the  man  who  had  already  ren- 
dered the  country  such  essential  service  the  attitude  of  the 
Oriental  despot,  who  sends  his  soldiers  to  the  field  with  the 
headsman  following  after  as  an  admonition  to  zealous  service. 

It  is  all  very  well  for  Ericsson  to  commend  the  promptness 
with  which  the  Xavy  Department  acted  in  accepting  his  ser- 
vices. It  took  good  care,  through  its  faithful  servant  Commo- 
dore Smith,  to  constantly  remind  him  that  the  risk  was  his, 
and  not  the  Nation's.  "  The  Government  requires  ninety  days  in 
which  to  test  the  vessel,"  wrote  the  Commodore,  September  30, 
1861.  "  So  soon  as  the  vessel  is  ready  for  service  the  Govern- 
ment will  send  her  on  the  coast  and  put  lier  before  the  enemy's 
batteries  in  the  service  for  which  you  intend  her.  No  other  test 
can  be  made  to  prove  the  vessel  and  her  appointments  than 
that  to  which  both  parties  agreed  to  expose  her ;  in  fact,  it  is 
the  gist  of  the  intentions  of  the  contracting  parties.     The  plan 


274  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

is  novel,  and  because  it  is  so,  the  Governineiit  requires  the  de- 
sij'ner  to  warrant  its  success.  Placing  tlie  vessel  before  an 
enemy's  battery  will  test  its  capacity  to  resist  shot  and  shell — 
that  is  the  least  of  the  difficulties  I  apprehend  in  the  success 
of  the  vessel,  but  it  is  one  of  the  properties  of  the  vessel  which 
you  set  forth  as  of  great  merit.  The  Government  cannot  con- 
sent to  receive  the  vessel  until  she  shall  have  been  tested  in 
the  manner  proposed." 

In  their  report,  dated  September  16,  18G1,  the  Board  pre- 
sided over  by  Commodore  Smith  had  made  frank  avowal  of 
ignorance  of  the  subject  they  were  selected  to  consider,  a  con- 
fession only  creditable  to  them  because  of  its  perfect  ingenu- 
ousness. Xo  such  ignorance  prevailed  in  the  Confederate 
Navy  Department,  and  if  the  facts  were  not  known  at  Wash- 
ington it  was  only  because  our  officials  there  refused  to  be  en- 
lightened. In  a  letter  to  Commodore  Smith's  Board,  dated 
September  3,  ISGl,  Ericsson,  speaking  from  his  large  experi- 
ence, had  said  : 

In  laying  before  you  the  accompanying  plans  and  specifications  of 
an  impregnable  battery  for  naval  i^urposes  I  feel  called  upon  to  make 
the  following  remarks  : 

The  wrouglit-iron  ordnance  of  twelve  inches  calibre,  planned  by  the 
writer  already  in  18-40,  practically  established  the  fact  that  iron  plates  of 
four  and  one-half  inches  thickness  could  not  resist  projectiles  from  such 
heavy  guns.  Previous  to  the  experiments  at  Sandy  Hook,  which  you  will 
remember  were  made  in  1841  with  the  ordnance  aUuded  to,  I  had  deter- 
mined theoretically  that  six  inches  thickness  would  be  required  to  pro- 
tect ships  against  the  same,  and  that  iron-plates  withoiit  wooden  sxipport, 
unless  made  even  thicker,  could  not  withstand  continued  firing.  Accord- 
ingly, the  revolving  turret  of  my  proposed  battery  is  made  eight  inches 
thick,  in  addition  to  which  the  outward  curvature  of  the  turret  will  on 
dynamic  considerations  materially  assist  the  resisting  capability  of  the 
iron.  Apart  from  the  great  strength  of  the  turret,  it  should  be  borne  in 
mind  that  but  few  balls  will  strike  so  accurately  in  the  centre  of  the  tur- 
ret as  not  to  glance  off  by  angular  contact.  The  United  States  may  justly 
claim  to  have  been  far  ahead  of  the  naval  powers  of  Europe,  who  have 
just  found  out  what  we  demonstrated  twenty  years  ago. 

"  In  respect  to  the  impregnable  nature  of  the  battery  proposed  I 
•will  not  enter  on  a  demonstration  before  one  so  experienced  as  yourself. 
It  will  be  all-suflTicient  merely  to  ask  you  to  look  carefully  at  the  plan. 
It  will,  however,  be  projier  for  me  to  advert  to  the  fact  that  the  iron-clad 
vessels  of  France  and  England  are  utterly  unable  to  resist  elongated 


BATTLE   BETWEEN   THE   MONITOR  AND   MEREIMAC.      276 

shot  fired  from  the  12-inch  guns  of  the  battery.  The  4^-iuch  plates  of 
La  Gloire  or  the  Wni-rior  would  crumble  like  brown  paper  under  the 
force  of  such  projectiles,  and  at  close  quarters  every  shot  would  crush 
in  the  enemy's  sides  at  the  water-line.  The  opj^osing  broadsides  would 
be  nothing  more  than  the  rattling  of  pebbles  on  our  cylindrical  iron  tur- 
ret, which,  by  the  way,  we  can  make  twelve  inches  thick,  as  we  have 
some  three  hundred  tons  buoyancy  to  spare.  A  small  number  of  these 
batteries  will  make  our  great  Atlantic  cities  absolutely  safe  against  at- 
tack from  steel-clad  friends  on  the  other  side.  As  for  the  rebel  fleet, 
protected  by  the  stolen  guns  at  Norfolk,  we  can  split  it  into  matches  in 
half  an  hour  ;  and  as  for  the  rebels  at  New  Orleans,  we  can  go  and  take 
a  look  at  their  cotton-bags  whenever  we  please  if  they  had  a  thousand 
guns  mounted  on  the  shore  of  their  great  river. 

So  far  as  concerns  the  statements  relating  to  the  respective 
powers  of  armor  and  of  guns,  this  was  not  speculation  but  the 
sober  rehearsal  of  facts,  and  of  facts  which  should  have  been 
understood  at  "Washington.  The  Emperor  Kapoleon  had  al- 
ready made  his  experiments,  and  the  results  of  the  trials  of 
armor  and  guns  at  Vincennes,  and  of  those  to  which  Ericsson 
called  attention,  were  part  of  the  naval  record.  The  destruc- 
tive effect  of  shell  firing  against  wooden  ships  had  been  demon- 
strated at  Sinope  in  1853,  and  even  a  quarter  of  a  century 
earlier  than  this  by  the  Russians  during  the  Greek  war  of  in- 
dependence. The  naval  attack  upon  Sebastopol  had  failed, 
and  the  proposed  attack  upon  Cronstadt  had  been  abandoned, 
because  of  the  inability  of  unarmored  vessels  to  stand  fire  ;  while 
even  the  imperfect  batteries  employed  by  the  French  at  Kin- 
burn,  October  17,  1855,  had  given  a  foretaste  of  the  quality  of 
iron-clads. 

The  necessity  for  adopting  some  new  form  of  meeting  the 
changed  conditions  of  naval  warfare  was  obvious  to  every  in- 
structed observer  ;  and  yet  a  proposition,  coming  from  an  en- 
gineer of  approved  ability  in  naval  construction,  and  demon- 
strated by  the  strictest  application  of  mathematical  formulas, 
was  objected  to  because  it  was  "  novel."  There  should  have 
been  ability  somewhere  in  our  Naval  Administration  to  deter- 
mine the  prospective  value  of  Ericsson's  plans,  and  they  should 
have  been  either  accepted  or  rejected ;  and  if  accepted,  the  in- 
ventor should  have  been  held  but  to  one  condition,  which  was 
the  fulfilment  of  the  stipulations  of  his  contract  as  to  the  char- 


276  LIFE   OF   JOIIX   ERICSSON. 

acter  of  the  vessel  he  was  to  present  for  acceptance.  The  risk 
of  the  result  was  for  the  Government  to  undertake,  and  espe- 
cially at  such  a  crisis. 

It  is  marvellous  that  Ericsson  should  have  accepted  such 
conditions  after  the  experience  he  had  had  of  AVashington 
methods.  Nothing  but  the  spirit  to  put  "life  itself"  at  the 
disposal  of  the  Government  could  have  prompted  the  venture. 
Commodore  Smith  proposed  that  he  should  turn  his  vessel  over 
to  men  prejudiced  in  advance  against  it,  and  anxious,  not  to 
demonstrate  its  value,  but  to  exaggerate  to  its  discredit  the  ac- 
cidents and  miscarriasres  attendino:  the  trial  of  a  new  and  novel 
piece  of  machinery. 

It  was  Providence  that  decreed  the  success  of  the  Monitor, 
and  not  the  navy.  During  the  period  of  peace  preceding  the 
war,  our  navy  "  was  always  grasping  at  the  shadow  and  leaving 
the  substance.  The  commodore  of  the  period  was  an  august 
personage  who  went  to  sea  in  a  great  flag-ship,  surrounded  by  a 
conventional  grandeur  which  was  calculated  to  inspire  a  be- 
coming respect  and  awe.  As  the  years  of  peace  rolled  on,  this 
figure  became  more  and  more  august,  more  and  more  conven- 
tional. The  fatal  defects  of  the  system  were  not  noticed  until 
1861,  when  the  crisis  came,  and  the  Service  was  unprepared  to 
meet  it ;  and  to  this  cause  was  largely  due  the  feebleness  of 
naval  operations  during  the  first  year  of  the  war.  There  seems 
to  have  been  a  total  want  of  information  at  the  central  office  of 
administration  in  reference  to  the  existing  demands  of  naval 
war,  and  the  measures  necessary  to  put  the  machine  into  ef- 
ficient operation.''  * 

"What  a  stirring  up  of  dry  bones  there  would  have  been 
could  Ericsson  have  been  given  absolute  control  of  naval  ad- 
ministration !  But  it  was  not  to  be.  In  spite  of  all  the  draw- 
backs, perhaps  his  services  were  quite  as  efficient  in  the  sphere 
to  which  he  was  confined.  Thanks  to  the  success  attending 
him  in  Hampton  Roads,  on  March  9,  1S62,  he  was  able  to  se- 
cure for  the  United  States  the  unprecedented  experience  of 
producing  an  entire  fleet  of  war  vessels,  built  on  a  new  system, 
and  successful  for  the  purpose  intended,  without  expending  a 

•  Professor  J.  R.  Soley,  now  Assistant-Secretary  of  the  Navy,  in  Battles 
and  Leaders  of  the  Civil  War,  vol.  i. ,  p.  623. 


BATTLE   BETWEEN   THE   MONITOR  AND   MERRIMAC.      277 

eingle  dollar  on  preliminary  experiments.  This,  too,  while 
England  and  France  were  wasting  millions  in  unsuccessful  ef- 
forts to  adapt  their  navy  to  modern  conditions.  From  the 
storehouse  of  his  own  fertile  invention,  his  own  prolific  ex- 
perience, Ericsson  was  able  to  produce,  without  hesitation  or 
delay,  every  requirement  for  modern  naval  warfare.  This 
record  of  his  experiences  has  shown  how  complete  was  his 
equipment  for  the  work  in  hand — so  far  exceeding  that  of  any 
living  man.  His  difficulties,  as  we  shall  see,  were  not  so  much 
in  himself  as  in  the  inability  of  others  to  understand  and  apply 
his  far-reaching  conceptions. 

Fortunately  for  the  country,  as  well  as  for  Ericsson,  there 
was  in  the  Navy  Department,  as  assistant  secretary,  a  gentle- 
man, Gustavus  Yasa  Fox,  whose  experience  as  a  naval  officer 
on  coast  survey  duty,  in  command  of  mail  steamers,  and  in  the 
war  with  Mexico,  had  given  him  a  knowledge  of  nautical  mat- 
ters, and  whose  five  years  of  civil  life  had  dissevered  him  from 
the  traditions  and  prejudices  of  the  naval  profession.  It  would 
appear  that  Mr.  Fox  was  at  first  indisposed  to  accept  Ericsson's 
ideas  on  the  subject  of  armored  vessels,  or  at  least  was  more 
favorably  inclined  to  those  originating  in  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment. 

Reporting  the  results  of  a  visit  to  "Washington,  on  behalf  of 
Ericsson's  battery,  Mr.  John  F.  "Winslow  wrote  from  Troy, 
January  10,  1862: 

While  I  cannot  say  that  I  found  Mr.  F.  unfriendly,  still  there  was  at 
first  a  loftiness  of  manner  toward  us,  and  a  confidence  in  the  bureau 
l)lan,  that  was  to  me  amusing  ;  yet,  finding  him  to  be  a  really  able  man, 
and  of  controlling  influence  in  matters  relating  to  his  bureau,  I  was  de- 
termined he  should  either  convert  me  to  the  bureau  plan,  or  I  would 
him  to  our  plan,  and  therefore  devoted  all  the  time  I  could  get  him  to 
appropriate  to  this  object,  and  after  more  than  five  hours'  consecutive 
discussion  of  all  the  points  involved,  I  left  him  with  an  admission  that 
he  was  only  familiar  with  sailing  and  defending  a  ship  ;  that,  as  to  the 
mechanics  and  architecture  incident  to  a  ship  or  steamer  building,  he 
professed  to  know  but  little,  and  so  far  as  the  mechanical  and  other  ar- 
rangements of  the  Ericsson  battery  were  concerned,  he  would  concede  to 
me  that  it  appeared  to  embody  all  the  features  of  success,  and  if  on 
trial  this  was  demonstrated,  ours  would  be  the  plan  to  be  adopted.  This 
was  the  substance  and  meaning  of  his  parting  assurances  to  me,  and 


278  LIFE   OF   JOHN  ERICSSON. 

though  it  COM  me  hours  of  animated  and  earnest  colloquial  effort,  yet  1 
made  a  convert  of  him,  as  I  think,  and  felt  abundantly  compensated. 

This  conversion  appears  to  have  been  complete,  for  Mr. 
Fox  soon  became  Ericsson's  earnest  cliampion,  and  when  the 
success  of  his  battery  was  demonstrated,  he  gave  him  his  un- 
varying support,  until  the  termination  of  his  connection  with 
the  Department,  in  1866. 

Of  Mr.  Fox,  a  member  of  Lincoln's  cabinet  said : 


Fox  was  really  the  able  man  of  the  administration.  He  planned  the 
capture  of  New  Orleans,  the  opening  of  the  Mississippi,  and  in  general 
the  operations  of  the  Navy.  He  had  all  the  responsibility  of  removing 
the  sui^erannuated  and  inefficient  men  he  found  in  charge,  had  the 
honor  of  selecting  Farragut,  and  was  often  consiilted  by  General  Grant. 
He  performed  all  his  duties  with  an  eye  only  to  the  requirements  of  the 
hour,  and  with  no  view  to  the  advancement  of  any  interest  of  his  own, 
Mr. entered  the  service  a  poor  man,  and  retired  with  a  fort- 
une ;  Mr.  Fox  abandoned  a  profitable  position  to  assist  the  Government, 
and  retired  from  office  without  a  dollar  in  the  world  he  could  call  his 


It  seems  to  have  been  the  intention  at  first  to  send  the 
Monitor  when  completed  to  join  the  expedition  against  New 
Orleans.  For  this  expedition  Farragut  received  his  orders  on 
January  20,  1S62,  ten  days  before  tlie  launching  of  the  Monitor^ 
arriving  off  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  in  his  flag-ship  Hart- 
ford a  month  later,  or  after  the  completion  of  the  battery, 
February  6,  1S62.  Ten  days  before  the  battery  was  finished 
Mr.  Fox  wrote  to  Ericsson  a  hasty  note,  asking  : 

"  Can  your  Monitor  sail  (steam)  for  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  by 
the  12th  inst.  ?  " 

The  alarming  news  of  the  approaching  completion  of  the 
Yirginia  at  Xorfolk  soon  changed  this  purpose,  for  on  "Wed- 
nesday, February  13tli,  Mr.  Winslow  wrote  from  Washington  : 
"  Mr.  Fox  told  us  to-day  he  should  be  at  Fort  Monroe  on  ar- 
rival of  the  battery  there,  to  witness  her  behavior  in  passing 
the  batteries  along  Elizabeth  River  and  Craney  Island  on  her 
way  up  to  Norfolk.  He  expects  she  will  leave  New  York  early 
next  week,  and  that  a  vessel  will  be  chartered  to  convey  her  to 
Hampton  Roads."    A  week  later,  on  February  21st,  Mi*.  Fox  tel- 


BATTLE   BETWEElSr  THE   MONITOR   AND   MERRIMAC.      279 

egraphed  to  Ericsson  from  Washington  :  "  It  is  very  important 
that  you  should  say  exactly  the  day  the  Monitor  can  be  at 
Hampton  Koads.  Consult  with  Commodore  Paulding."  Lieu- 
tenant Worden  had  hardly  left  the  harbor  of  New  York  when 
orders  came  to  change  the  destination  of  his  vessel  to  Wash- 
ington. It  was  too  late  ;  Commodore  Paulding  was  unable  to 
overtake  him  with  the  tug  sent  in  hot  pursuit.  Similar 
orders  were  sent  to  the  senior  naval  officer  at  Hampton 
Roads,  Captain  John  Marston,  U.S.N.,  but  he  was  wise 
enough  to  disregard  them,  acting  upon  the  military  princi- 
ple that  it  is  justifiable  to  disobey  an  order  when  it  is  obvious 
that  it  was  given  in  such  ignorance  of  the  facts  of  the  actual 
situation,  that  to  carry  it  out  literally  would  defeat  the  object 
intended. 

The  Monitor'  left  New  York  Harbor  on  the  afternoon  of 
March  6,  1862,  in  tow  of  a  tug,  and  accompanied  by  two  naval 
steamers,  the  Currituck  and  Sachem.  The  wind  was  moderate 
and  the  sea  smooth,  but  twenty-four  hours  later  both  had  so 
increased  that  the  waves  swept  the  deck  and  forced  the  water 
in  considerable  quantities  into  the  vessel  through  the  hawse- 
pipes  and  under  the  turret,  and  broke  over  the  smoke-pipe  six 
feet  high,  and  tlie  blower  j)ipe,  rising  here  only  four  feet  above 
the  low  deck.  This  stopped  the  blowers,  and  the  furnaces  hav- 
ing insufficient  draught,  the  engine-rooms  were  filled  with  gas, 
and  the  engineer,  Mr.  Isaac  Newton,  and  his  assistants  were 
so  nearly  suffocated  that  they  were  carried  into  the  open  air  to 
the  top  of  the  turret,  apparently  lifeless. 

The  machinery  being  temporarily  disabled  the  hand-pumps 
were  set  at  work  and  the  men  occupied  in  bailing  until  a 
smoother  sea  was  reached,  the  blower-bands  repaired,  and  the 
machinery  once  more  set  in  motion.  These  mishaps  were  the 
result  partly  of  defects  in  construction  easily  remedied,  and 
partly  of  want  of  experience  in  handling  so  novel  a  craft.  The 
only  man  on  board  who  thoroughly  understood  the  characteris- 
tics of  the  vessel  was  Chief  Engineer  Alban  C.  Stimers,  U.S.N., 
the  naval  inspector  of  iron-clads,  who  was  on  board  as  a  pas- 
senger only.  The  officers  were  :  Lieutenants  John  L.  Worden 
and  Samuel  Dana  Greene;  Masters,  Louis N.  Stodder  and  John 
J.  N.  Webber ;  Assistant  Surgeon,  Daniel  C.  Logue ;  Paymas- 


280  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

ter,  'W.  F.  Keeler ;  First  Assistant  Engineei*,  Isaac  Xewton ; 
Second  Assistant  Engineer,  Albert  B.  Campbell ;  Third  Assist- 
ant Engineers,  K.  W.  Hands,  M.  T.  Sunstrum.  The  crew  of 
forty-three  men  were  volunteers. 

The  dramatic  incidents  attending  the  arrival  of  the  Monitor 
at  Hampton  Roads,  on  the  evening  of  March  8th,  have  been 
fully  described  in  contemporary  annals.  The  story  was  told  to 
Ericsson  in  a  letter  from  Mr.  Stimers,  as  follows: 

Iron-Clad  MoxrroR, 
Hampton  Roads,  March  9,  1862. 

Mx  Deab  Sir  :  After  a  stormy  passage  which  proved  us  to  be  the 
finest  sea-boat  I  was  ever  in,  we  fought  the  Merr'nnac  for  more  than 
three  hours  this  forenoon,  and  sent  her  back  to  Norfolk  in  a  sinking 
condition.  Iron-clad  against  iron-clad,  we  manoeuvred  about  the  bay 
here,  and  went  at  each  other  with  mutual  fairness.  I  consider  that  both 
ships  were  well  fought.  We  were  struck  twenty-two  times,  pilot-house 
twice,  turret  nine  times,  deck  three  times,  sides  eight  times.  The  only 
vulnerable  jooint  was  the  pilot-house.  One  of  your  great  logs  (nine  by 
twelve  inches  thick)  is  broken  in  two.  The  shot  struck  just  outside  of 
where  the  captain  had  his  eve,  and  disabled  him  by  destroying  his  left 
eve  and  temporarily  blinding  the  other.  The  log  is  not  quite  in  two, 
but  is  broken  and  pressed  inward  one  and  a  half  inch.  She  tried  to 
run  us  down  and  sink  us  as  she  did  the  Cumberland  yesterday,  but 
she  got  the  worst  of  it.  Her  horn  passed  over  our  deck,  and  our  sharp, 
upper-edged  rail  cut  through  the  light-iron  shoe  upon  her  stem  and 
well  into  her  oak.  She  will  not  try  that  again.  She  gave  us  a  tre- 
mendous thump,  but  did  not  injure  us  in  the  least,  we  were  just  able 
to  find  the  point  of  contact.  The  turret  is  a  splendid  structure  ;  I 
don't  think  much  of  the  shield,  but  the  pendulums  are  fine  things, 
though  I  cannot  teU  you  bow  they  would  stand  the  shot,  as  they  were 
not  hit. 

You  were  very  correct  in  your  estimate  of  the  effect  of  shot  upon 
the  man  on  the  inside  of  the  turret  when  it  was  struck  near  him.  Three 
men  were  knocked  down,  of  whom  I  was  one.  The  other  two  had  to 
be  carried  below,  but  I  was  not  disabled  at  all,  and  the  others  recovered 
before  the  battle  was  over.  Captain  Worden  stationed  himself  at  the 
pilot-house,  Greene  fired  the  guns,  and  I  turned  the  turret  until  the 
Captain  was  disabled  and  was  relieved  by  Greene,  when  I  managed  the 
turret  myself,  Master  Stoddard  having  been  one  of  the  two  stunned 
men. 

Captain  Ericsson,  I  congratulate  you  upon  your  g^eat  success  ;  thou- 
sands here  this  day  bless  you.  I  have  heard  whole  crews  cheer  you ; 
every  man  feels  that  you  have  saved  this  place  to  the  nation  by  furnish- 


BATTLE  BETWEEN  THE  MONITOE  AND   MEEKIMAO.      281 

ing  us  with  the  means  to  whip  an  iron-clad  frigate  that  was,  unfcii  our 
arrival,  having  it  all  her  own  way  with  our  most  powerful  vessels. 
I  am  with  much  esteem. 

Very  truly  yours, 
Captain  J.  Ebicsson,  Alban  0.  Stimbks. 

95  Franklin  Street,  New  York. 


In  another  account  Mr.  Stimers  states  that,  during  part  of 
the  voyage  the  sea  was  so  high  that  the  gunboats  acting  as 
convoys  rolled  so  much  that  when  they  careened  in  one  direc- 
tion he  could  see  under  the  bilge,  and  when  the  deck  was  tow- 
ard him  he  could  look  down  the  main  hold.  "  The  motion 
of  the  Monitor'  was  so  easy  and  quiet  that  a  glass  inkstand 
stood  upon  a  polished  mahogany  case  on  the  table  in  the 
Captain's  cabin,  during  the  entire  voyage,  without  slipping. 
At  the  same  time  the  sea  washed  over  the  deck  in  the  most 
terrific  manner.  All  hands  were  at  one  time  driven  to  the 
top  of  the  turret  by  the  escaping  gas  from  the  furnace  fires. 
During  the  night  the  wire  tiller  ropes  came  off  the  wheel, 
and  all  hands  were  occupied  during  most  of  the  night  in 
hauling  on  the  ropes  by  liand  and  readjusting  them  on  the 
wheel." 

The  "  Greene  "  referred  to  in  Mr.  Stimers'  letter  was  Lieu- 
tenant S.  Dana  Greene,  a  young  officer  of  the  Navy  then  in  his 
twenty-third  year.  He  had  volunteered  to  go  in  the  Monitor^ 
notwithstanding  the  many  gloomy'  predictions  concerning  her, 
and  had  been  ordered  to  her  as  executive  officer  at  the  request 
of  Lieutenant  Worden.  In  his  account  of  the  voyage  of  the 
Monitor  to  Hampton  Roads,  Lieutenant  Greene  says : 

"We  left  New  York  in  tow  of  the  tug-boat  Seth  Low  at  11  a.m.  on 
Thursday,  March  6th.  On  the  following  day,  a  moderate  breeze  was  en- 
countered, and  it  was  at  once  evident  that  the  Monitor  was  unfit  as  a  sea- 
going craft.  Nothing  but  the  subsidence  of  the  wind  prevented  her 
from  being  shipwrecked  before  she  reached  Hampton  Koads.  The 
berth-deck  leaked  in  spite  of  all  we  could  do,  and  the  water  came  down 
under  the  turret  like  a  waterfall.  It  would  strike  the  pilot-house  and 
go  over  the  turret  in  beautiful  curves,  and  come  through  the  narrow  eye- 
holes of  the  pilot-house  with  such  force  as  to  knock  the  helmsman  com- 
pletely round  from  the  wheel.  .  .  .  The  water  continued  to  pour 
through  the  hawse-hole,  and  over  and  down  the  smoke-stacks  and  blower- 


282  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

pipes  in  such  quantities  that  there  was  imminent  danger  that  the  ship 
would  founder.* 

It  was  evident  that  Lieutenant  Greene  did  not  agree  with 
Engineer  Stimers'  estimate  of  the  Monitor  as  a  fine  sea-boat, 
and  in  an  official  report  to  the  Department,  March  27,  1862, 
he  said :  "  I  do  not  consider  this  steamer  a  sea-going  vessel. 
During  her  passage  from  New  York  her  roll  was  very  easy 
and  slow,  not  at  all  deep.  She  pitched  very  little  and  with  no 
strain  whatever.  She  is  buoyant,  and  not  very  lively.  The 
inconveniences  we  experienced  can  be  easily  remedied.  But 
she  has  not  the  steam  power  to  go  against  a  head-wind  or 
sea.  .  .  .  For  smooth  water  operations,  such  as  she  was 
engaged  in  on  the  9th  inst.,  I  think  her  a  most  desirable  ves- 
sel." 

In  criticising  a  similar  discrepancy  of  statement  between 
the  engineer  and  the  commander  of  a  later  Monitor,  concern- 
ing  the  injuries  received  by  his  vessel,  Ericsson  said :  "I  should 
rather  trust  to  the  judgment  of  a  skilful  practical  engineer  as  to 
the  real  damage  done,  than  to  the  opinion  of  the  gallant  com- 
manders of  these  vessels,  most  of  whom  know  nothing  of 
mechanical  matters.  It  has  often  given  me  pain  to  think  that 
our  fighting  inachines  are  entrusted  to  officers  who  know  noth- 
ing of  mechanics,  and  therefore  have  no  confidence  in  their 
vessels." 

In  replying  to  Lieutenant  Greene's  criticisms  upon  the 
Monitor^  he  explains  that  he  intended  the  sight-holes  in  the 
pilot-house  to  be  five-eighths  of  an  inch  wide,  affording  a  verti- 
cal view  eighty  feet  high  at  a  distance  of  only  two  hundred 
yards,  and  this  his  experiments  had  shown  him  was  sufficient. 
A  subsequent  alteration  in  the  sight-holes,  accounted  for  the 
entrance  of  water,  and  for  the  injury  done  to  the  sight  of  the 
commander  of  the  Monitor^  by  the  explosion  of  a  shell  from 
the  muzzle  of  a  gun  not  ten  yards  distant. 

Fortunately,  the  impression  that  the  sight  of  one  eye  was 
destroyed  was  incorrect,  though  Worden  will  carry  the  scars 
of  this  fight  with  him  to  his  grave.  The  turret  of  the  Monitor 
was  not  carried  on  revolving  rollers,  but  pivoted  on  the  centre 

*  Battles  and  Leaders  of  the  Civil  War,  vol.  1.,  p.  721. 


BATTLE   BETWEEN   THE   MONITOR   AND   MERRIMAC.      283 

and  slid  on  the  smooth  surface  of  a  flat,  broad  ring  of  bronze, 
let  in  on  the  deck.  Before  the  vessel  left  New  York,  some  "  ex- 
pert "  at  the  Brooklyn  Navy  Yard  inserted  a  plaited  hemp  rope 
between  the  base  of  the  turret  and  the  bronze  ring,  to  shut  out 
the  small  amount  of  water  entering  there.  It  was  expected 
that  water  would  work  its  way  through,  as  it  was  impossible 
to  make  a  water-tight  joint  under  a  revolving  turret,  and 
pumps  were  provided  to  remove  what  little  water  entered.  It 
was  necessary  to  widen  the  space  between  the  turret  and  its 
base  in  order  to  make  room  for  the  rope  packing,  and  as  this 
washed  out  the  result  was  the  leak  around  the  whole  circum- 
ference of  the  turret,  sixty-three  feet,  referred  to  by  Mr.  Greene, 
through  which  "  the  water  came  down  under  the  turret  like  a 
waterfall."  The  entrance  of  water  through  the  hawse-pipe  was 
not  due  to  faulty  construction ;  it  resulted,  Ericsson  declared, 
"  from  gross  oversight  on  the  part  of  the  executive  officer — ■ 
namely,  in  going  to  sea  without  stopping  the  openings  around 
the  chain  cable  at  the  point  where  it  passes  through  the  side 
of  the  anchor- well."  *  During  the  passage  from  New  York,  the 
working  gear  of  the  turret  was  permitted  to  rust  for  want  of 
proper  cleaning  and  oiling,  and  it  worked  with  so  much  diffi- 
culty during  the  engagement  with  the  Merrimac  that,  but  for 
the  energy  and  determination  of  Engineer  Stimers,  it  might 
not  have  revolved  at  all. 

These  are  Ericsson's  explanations,  and  such  were  some  of 
the  difficulties  with  which  he  contended  in  proving  the  value 
of  his  invention  at  the  outset.  Again,  the  timid  ordnance  of- 
ficers at  "Washington  insisted  on  limiting  to  fifteen  pounds  the 
charge  with  the  eleven-inch  guns  which  was  subsequently  in- 
creased to  fifty  pounds.  The  wrouglit-iron  shot  intended  for 
the  vessel  were  not  used.  But  for  these  departures  from  the 
design  of  Ericsson,  Worden  could  have  accomplished  the  ex- 
pected result  of  splitting  "  the  rebel  fleet  into  matches  in  half 
an  hour." 

The  veteran  officer  in  command  of  the  Merrimac,  Admiral 
Buchanan,  C.S.N.,  had  been  badly  wounded  by  a  rifle  ball 
from  the  shore,  during  the  fight  of  the  day  before  with  the 

*  See  Ericsson's  article  on  "  The  Building  of  the  Monitor,'''  in  Battles  and 
Leaders  of  the  Civil  War,  vol.  i. ,  p.  730. 


284  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

wooden  vessels  in  Hampton  Roads.  Ilis  successor  in  command, 
Lieutenant  Catesby  Ap  R.  Jones,  says  of  the  Monitor :  "  She 
and  her  turret  appeared  to  be  under  perfect  control.  Her 
light  draught  enabled  her  to  move  about  us  at  pleasure.  She 
once  took  a  position  for  a  short  time  where  we  could  not  bring 
a  gun  to  bear  upon  her.  Another  of  her  movements  caused  us 
great  anxiety  ;  she  made  for  our  rudder  and  propeller,  both  of 
which  could  have  been  easily  disabled.  We  could  only  see  her 
guns  when  discharged  ;  immediately  afterward  the  turret  re- 
volved rapidly,  and  the  guns  were  not  again  seen  until  they 
were  fired.  We  wondered  how  proper  aim  could  be  taken  in 
the  very  short  time  the  guns  were  in  sight.  It  did  not  appear 
that  our  shell  had  any  effect  on  the  Monitor.  Musketry  was 
fired  at  the  look-out  holes.  She  fired  forty-one  shots."  *  No 
serious  damage  was  done  to  his  vessel,  he  reports. 

"  A  Confederate  soldier,  who  from  a  safe  position  saw  the 
fight,"  describing  his  experience,  says  : 

And  now  we  are  at  Nevrport  News.  The  frigate  Cumberland  is  struck 
below  the  starboard  forechains ;  she  reels,  rolls,  and  goes  down.  And 
the  flag  of  the  Congress  comes  down  by  the  run  ;  soon  she  will  make  a 
brilliant  bonfire  to  illuminate  the  Roads.  And  now  for  the  Minnesota. 
But  just  here  the  pilots  insist  upon  bringing  to  anchor  while  yet  the 
daylight  lasts.  Our  anchor  is  down  under  Sewell's  Point,  our  ship  un- 
scratched  by  a  pin.  The  fire  of  the  Cumberland  had  killed  two  men  and 
wounded  five,  and  had  also  carried  away  the  muzzles  of  two  guns,  but 
we  never  ceased  firing  them  and  the  damage  was  wholly  immaterial. 

In  the  early  morning,  Jones  gets  under  way  to  finish  the  Minnesota. 
We  soon  desciy  a  strange-looking  iron  tower,  sliding  over  the  waters 
toward  us,  and  we  dash  at  it.  It  is  the  Monitor,  which  during  the  pre- 
vious night  had  come  in  from  sea,  and  which  by  the  light  of  the  burn- 
ing Congress  had  been  seen  and  reported  by  one  of  our  pilots. 

Nearly  two  hours  have  passed,  and  many  a  shot  and  shell  have  been 
exchanged  at  close  quarters  with  no  perceptible  damage  to  either.  The 
Virginia  is  discouragingly  cumbrous  and  unwieldy.  To  wind  her  for 
each  broadside  fire,  fifteen  minutes  are  lost ;  while  during  all  this  time, 
the  Monitor  is  whirling  around  and  about  like  a  top,  and  by  the  easy 
working  of  her  turret,  and  her  precise  and  rapid  movement,  ehcits  the 
wondering  admiration  of  all.  She  is  evidently  invulnerable  to  our 
shell. 

Our  next  movement  is  to  nin  her  down.    "We  ram  her  with  all  otur 

•  Southern  Historical  Society  Papers,  vol.  xi.,  p.  21. 


BATTLE   BETWEEN  THE   MONITOR  AND   MERRIMAC.      286 

force.  But  slie  is  so  flat  and  broad  that  she  merely  slides  away  from 
under  our  stern,  as  a  floating  door  would  slip  away  from  under  the  cut- 
water of  a  barge  ;  all  that  we  could  do  was  to  push  her.  Jones  now  de- 
termines to  board  her ;  to  choke  her  turret  in  some  way  and  lash  her  to 
the  Virginia.  The  blood  is  rushing  through  our  veins  while  the  shrill 
pipes  and  hoarse  roar  of  the  boatswains  call  "  Boarders  away  !  "  But  lo  ! 
our  enemy  has  hauled  oflf  into  shoal  water,  where  she  is  as  safe  from  our 
ship  as  if  she  were  on  the  topmost  peak  of  the  Blue  Ridge.  Ten  feet 
of  water  against  twenty-two.  The  smoke  from  our  gun  was  yet  floating 
lazily  away  when  Catesby  Jones  remarked  to  the  writer :  "  The  destruc- 
tion of  those  wooden  vessels  was  a  matter  of  course,  but  in  not  captur- 
ing that  iron-clad,  I  feel  as  if  we  had  done  nothing ; "  and  yet,  he  added, 
"  give  me  that  vessel  and  I  would  sink  this  one  in  twenty  minutes." 
Eveiy  watch  officer  in  our  squadron  would  engage,  under  the  forfeiture 
of  his  head,  with  a  monitor  to  sink  a  Virginia  every  thirty  minutes  from 
dawn  to  dewy  eve.  And  this  is  said  in  no  spirit  of  boasting.  A  Nelson 
or  a  Collingwood,  finding  the  enemy's  upper  works  invulnerable,  might 
have  tried  the  lower  ones ;  they  certainly  would  have  done  something 
with  the  divine  inspiration  of  genius  to  make  the  best  ship  win.  But 
then.  Nelsons  and  CoUingwoods  only  appear  every  century  or  two. 

The  Monitor  was  fought  with  plenty  of  spirit.  She  was  also  fought 
with  a  plentiful  lack  of  judgment  and  common-sense,  and  ordnance- 
sense.  The  great  radical  blunder  was  in  failing  to  concentrate  her  fire. 
In  two  instances  a  second  shot,  striking  near  the  first,  weakened  our 
shield  and  caused  the  backing  to  bulge  inward,  and  made  it  veiy  manifest 
that  a  third  or  fourth  shot  would  have  gone  through.  In  these  cases  the 
shot  were  delivered  upon  the  strongest  part  of  our  roof ;  and  if  they  had 
struck  her  at  water-line,  where  there  was  no  protection  whatever  for  the 
hull  (for  be  it  remembered  that  she  had  no  knuckle),  they  would  have 
gone  through  her  as  if  she  had  been  of  paper.  A  fighting,  wide-awake 
seaman  makes  the  enemy's  water-line  his  first  target,  and  that  proving 
invulnerable,  the  guns  and  the  guns'  crew  the  second.  Now,  the  enor- 
mous weight  of  her  shield  and  battery  kept  the  Virginia  all  the  time 
just  hovering  between  floating  and  sinking  ;  a  very  few  tons  of  water 
through  the  hole  made  by  two,  or  even  one,  well-aimed  shot  from  the 
splendid  eleven-inch  gun  of  the  Monitor,  and  the  Virginia  would  have 
gone  to  the  bottom  in  five  minutes. 

With  such  a  gun,  and  at  such  short  range,  it  would  be  no  great  feat 
for  an  intelligent  side-boy  to  plant  his  shot  every  time  in  the  space  cov- 
ered by  an  ordinary  straw  hat.  The  Virginia  was  so  large  a  mark  that 
almost  every  shot  struck  her  somewhere  ;  but  they  were  scattered  over 
the  whole  shield  on  both  sides,  and  were  therefore  harmless.  To  point 
her  gun  in  our  direction  and  fire  on  the  instant,  without  aim  or  motive, 
appeared  to  be  the  object.  The  turret  revolving  rapidly,  the  gun  dis- 
appears only  to  repeat  in  five  or  six  minutes  the  same  hurried  and 
necessarily  aimless,  unmeaning  fire.     She  could  assume  and  keep  what- 


286  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

ever  jxisition  she  pleased,  for  with  her  short  keel  and  fine  engines  she 
could  play  around  us  like  a  rabbit  around  a  sloth.  Once  during  the 
fight  she  took  such  a  position  that  we  could  not  bring  a  single  gun  to 
bear  on  her.  Why  did  she  not  with  common-sense  keep  it,  and  with 
perfect  security,  deliberately  plant  her  shot  where  she  pleased,  almost 
to  an  inch  ? 

She  fired,  all  told,  during  the  fight  forty-one  shots  (taking  her  time, 
about  one  fire  in  six  minutes),  and  any  three  of  them  properly  aimed 
would  have  sunk  us,  and  yet  the  nearest  shot  to  the  water-line  was  over 
four  feet.  Our  radder  and  propeller  were  wholly  unprotected,  and  a 
slight  blow  from  her  stem  would  have  disabled  both  and  ended  the 
fight.  Every  time  the  Virginia  went  to  cniise  in  the  Roads  under  Tat- 
nall  we  bade  her  an  affectionate  good-by,  we  never  expected  to  see  her 
again.  In  short,  considering  that  at  noon  on  March  8,  1862,  the  Moni- 
tor was  by  immense  odds  the  most  formidable  vessel  of  war  on  this 
planet,  and  that  our  ship  was  comparatively  a  ship  of  glass,  and  that, 
doing  us  no  harm  and  wholly  unharmed  herself  after  four  mortal  hours 
of  battle,  she  runs  away  and  gives  us  the  fight,  it  is  impossible  to  con- 
ceive in  what  manner  she  could  have  been  more  inefficiently  fought.* 

*"If  that  splendid  invention,  as  we  freely  admit  she  was  for 
smooth  water,  had  been  fought  as  she  ought  to  have  been,"  this 
writer  concludes,  '"•  it  might  have  saved  tliem  50.000  men.  En- 
gaging our  handful  with  a  few  brigades,  McClellan  might  have 
walked  past  us  to  Richmond  with  the  rest  of  his  army  almost 
any  morning  before  breakfast." 

In  justice  to  the  officers  commanding  the  Monitoi\  First 
Lieutenant  Worden  and  then  Lieutenant  Greene,  it  should  be 
remembered  that  they  were  forced  into  a  fight  immediately 
upon  their  arrival  in  Hampton  Roads,  after  a  fatiguing  sea  voy- 
age, under  singularly  trying  circumstances,  and  with  a  vessel 
whose  peculiarities  they  had  no  time  to  investigate.  "All  the 
men,"  wrote  Isaac  Xewton,  the  engineer  of  the  vessel,  "  were 
nearly  exhausted.  I,  for  one,  was  sick  on  my  back,  with  but 
little  hopes  of  being  up  in  a  week,  but  a  short  time  before  the 
action."  ''  The  Merrimac,-''  he  further  says,  "  was  entirely  in 
our  power  when  she  hauled  off,  but  orders  were  imperative  to 
act  on  the  defensive."  The  commander  of  the  Merrhnac, 
Catesby  Junes,  testified  before  a  naval  court  that  the  Monitor 
ought  to  have  sunk  his  vessel  in  fifteen  minutes.     Mr.  Alban 

*  Wm.  Norris  in  Southern  Magazine,  Baltimore,  November,  1874,  pp. 
181,  182. 


BATTLE  BETWEEN  THE  MONITOK  AND  MEEEIMAC.      287 

C.  Stimers,  speaks  of  meeting  Mr.  Jones  many  times  after  the 
war,  and  talking  over  the  engagement.  On  the  last  occasion, 
Baid  Mr.  Stimers  (1872),  he  remarked:  "The  war  has  been 
over  a  good  while  now,  and  I  think  there  can  be  no  harm  in 
my  saying  to  you  that,  if  you  had  hit  us  twice  more  as  well  as 
you  did  the  last  two  shots  you  fired,  you  would  have  sunk 
us."  * 

John  S.  Porter,  naval  constructor  of  the  Confederate  States, 
reported  that  after  the  engagements  of  March  8  and  9,  1862, 
he  put  the  Virginia  on  the  dry  dock,  and  found  she  had  ninety- 
seven  indentations  on  her  armor  from  shot,  twenty  of  which 
were  from  the  11-inch  guns  of  the  Monitor.  Six  of  her  top 
layers  of  plates  were  broken  by  the  Monitor^s  shot,  and  none 
by  those  of  the  wooden  vessels.  None  of  the  lower  layer  of 
plates  were  injured. 

Mr.  Newton's  statement  concerning  the  defensive  role  of 
the  Monitor  is  fully  confirmed  by  Assistant  Secretary  Fox. 
In  a  letter  to  Captain  Ericsson,  he  says :  "  I  wrote  the  order 
forbidding  the  Monitor  going  into  the  upper  roads  to  meet  the 
Merrimac.  Why  ?  Because  I  had  pledged  McClellan  that 
the  Merrimac  should  not  disturb  his  military  manoeuvres,  and 
to  that  obligation  all  naval  operations  were  subordinate.  We 
fulfilled  our  duty,  and  kept  her  in  until  she  committed  *  hari 
kari.' "  President  Lincoln  had  also  given  orders  that  the  Mon- 
itor should  take  no  risks  that  could  be  avoided. 

While  the  contest  in  Hampton  E,oads  served  to  direct  the 
attention  of  all  the  world  to  the  necessity  for  making  a  com- 
plete change  in  naval  armaments,  it  did  not  fully  illustrate  the 
possibilities  of  the  monitor  system.  When  his  vessel  had 
passed  from  the  hands  of  Ericsson,  it  was  beyond  his  control. 
He  had  done  his  part  in  furnishing  an  impregnable  floating 
battery,  carrying  guns  that  were  equal  to  the  task  of  destroy- 
ing the  enemy's  vessel  ;  he  could  do  no  more.  The  wave  of 
rejoicing  which  swept  over  the  North  was  due  not  so  much  to 
the  achievement  of  the  Monitor,  fought  as  she  was,  as  to  the 
sense  of  relief  at  the  discovery  that  the  Government  had  under 
its  control  at  least  one  vessel  that  could  not  be  destroyed  by 

*  Letter  of  Alban  C.  Stimers  to  Isaac  Newton,  dated  New  York,  Decem- 
ber 15,  1876. 


288  LIFE  OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

the  Merrlinae.  The  timid  counsels  prevailing  at  Washington, 
pi-evented  the  contest  from  being  brought  to  the  issue  which 
Ericsson  intended.  Though  the  necessities  of  the  times  may 
have  required  this,  the  result  was  not  less  disappointing  to 
him. 

"  The  Monitor  only  appears  upon  the  scene,"  says  the  Con- 
federate writer  here  quoted,  "  after  we  have  been  on  the  ram- 
page for  a  whole  day ;  have  cleared  out  everything  in  the 
Roads — men-of-war,  transports,  traders,  and  have  done  the 
enemy  all  possible  injury,  material  and  moral.  Stocks  fall 
ten  per  cent,  in  an  hour,  gold  rises  faster,  and  such  a  panic  pre- 
vails as  was  never  known  before  or  since." 

Secretary  Welles,  describing  a  cabinet  meeting  called  by  Mr. 
Lincoln  on  receipt  of  the  news  of  the  first  day's  disaster,  says : 
"  Mr.  Stanton  said :  *  '  The  Merrimac  will  change  the  whole 
character  of  the  war ;  she  will  destroy,  seriatim,  every  naval 
vessel ;  she  will  lay  all  the  cities  on  the  seaboard  iinder  contri- 
bution. I  shall  immediately  recall  Burnside ;  Port  Koyal  must 
be  abandoned.  I  will  notify  the  governors  and  municipal  au- 
thorities in  the  Xorth  to  take  instant  measures  to  protect  their 
harbors.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  monster  is  at  this  minute 
on  her  way  to  Washington,  and  ' — looking  out  of  the  window 
which  commanded  a  view  of  the  Potomac  for  many  miles — 
'  not  unlikely  we  shall  have  a  shell  or  a  cannon-ball  from  one  of 
her  guns  in  the  White  House  before  we  leave  the  room  ! '  Mr. 
Seward,  usually  buoyant  and  self-reliant,  overwhelmed  with 
the  intelligence,  listened  in  responsive  sympathy  to  Stanton,  and 
was  greatly  depressed,  as  indeed  were  all  the  members." 

It  is  true  that  the  Confederate  writer  claims  the  victory  for 
the  Yirrjinia  in  this  battle:  a  battle  described  by  him  as 
"  revolutionizing  in  an  instant  the  whole  science  of  naval  war- 
fare ;  more  memorable  than  any  sea-fight  of  history,  more 
pregnant  of  consecpiences,"  and  one  to  be  "  remembered  to  the 
latest  posterity  as  the  prominent  naval  event  of  our  times." 
This  is  not  worth  disputing  over.  The  prestige  of  victory  was 
with  the  Monitor,  and  it  is  that  vessel,  and  not  the  Merrimac, 
that  revolutionized  naval  ideas  and  influenced  naval  construc- 
tion. The  one  was  a  rude  machine  hastily  improvised  to 
*  Welles's  Lincoln  and  Seward. 


tMF' 


''i'!:!!!i:'iniiii-:ii.;;,^.  iidiiiilllliiiiiliilliliM^^^^^ 


BATTLE  BETWEEN  THE  MONITOR  AND   MERRIMAC.      289 

meet  an  emergency  ;  the  other  the  expression  of  the  carefully 
matured  plans  of  the  ablest  and  most  experienced  worker  in 
the  field  of  naval  construction.  The  Yirgifiia,*  a  few  weeks 
later,  and  without  doing  further  damage,  sank  beneath  the 
waters  of  Chesapeake  Bay,  to  be  thenceforth  remembered  only 
as  the  antagonist  of  the  Monitor  /  Ericsson's  Battery  estab- 
lished a  type  whose  influence  upon  naval  construction  has  not 
yet  passed  away. 

"  The  Monitor,''^  said  Admiral  Luce,  in  a  paper  read  before 
the  Naval  Institute,  April  20, 1876,  "  was  the  crystallization  of 
forty  centuries  of  thought  on  attack  and  defence,  and  exhibited 
in  a  singular  manner  the  old  Norse  element  of  the  American 
Navy ;  Ericsson  (Swedish,  son  of  Eric)  built  her  ;  Dahlgren 
(Swedish,  branch  of  a  valley)  armed  her  ;  and  Worden  (Swe- 
dish, wordig^  worthy)  fought  her.  How  the  ancient  skalds 
would  have  struck  their  wild  harps  in  hearing  such  names  in 
heroic  verse !  How  they  would  have  written  them  in  '  im- 
mortal runes ! ' " 

"  So  of  the  Monitor^  Minotaur  old  Mr.  Quincy  said  to  me 
it  should  have  been,  in  its  appearance  in  part  of  the  great  meg- 
alosaurus  or  deinotherium,  which  came  out  in  scaly  armor  that 
no  one  could  pierce,  breathing  fire  and  smoke  from  its  nostrils ; 
is  it  not  the  age  of  fable  and  of  heroes  and  demigods  over 
again  ? "  f 

*  This  vessel  is  indifferently  known  as  the  Merrimac  or  Virginia.  She 
was  the  U.S.  screw  steamer  Merrimac  of  3,200  tons,  40  guns,  built  in  1855, 
and  captured  with  Norfolk,  Va.,  1861.  When  she  was  razeed  and  converted 
into  an  armored  vessel,  she  was  rechristened  Virginia. 

f  See  Letter  of  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  in  The  Correspondence  of  John 
Lothrop  Motley. 


CHAPTER  XYIII. 

THE  SUCCESS  OF  THE  MOXITOR. 

Congratulations  and  Applause  Following  the  Success  of  the  Monitor. — • 
Delight  of  the  Swedes. — Letter  from  Mrs.  Ericsson. — Ericsson's 
only  Speech. — His  Chagrin  at  the  Drawn  Battle  between  the  Moni- 
tor and  the  Merrimac. — Exaggerated  Hopes  and  Fears  on  both 
Sides. 

FOLLOWING  the  success  of  the  Monitor,  there  swept  in 
upon  Ericsson  a  great  tide  of  congratulation  and  applause. 
All  of  the  "  loyal  "  papers  were  filled  with  praises  of  him  and 
glorification  of  his  Monitor,  and  of  her  officers  and  crew. 
"The  joyous  news  was  flashed  through  the  Xorth,  and  now 
from  Congress  and  State  Legislatures,  now  from  Chambers  of 
Commerce  and  Boards  of  Trade,  now  from  public  meetings 
and  societies  convened  for  the  purpose,  thanks  and  laudations 
were  poured  upon  the  Monitor — Ericsson,  her  inventor,  Wor- 
den,  her  commander,  Greene,  her  executive  officer,  Xewton, 
her  chief  engineer,  Stimers,  the  engineer  detailed  to  accompany 
and  report  upon  her,  and  who  worked  the  turret.  All  the 
officers,  in  short,  and  the  crew  shared  the  honors.  The  Presi- 
dent, members  of  his  cabinet,  many  of  the  diplomatic  corps, 
officers  of  both  services,  and  ladies  too,  crowded  to  see  the  new 
engine  of  warfare  and  to  view  with  theii*  own  eyes  the  place  of 
the  conflict  of  Hampton  Roads." 

Stimers  wrote  from  on  board  the  Monitor  in  Hampton 
Roads,  March  13,  1S62  :  "  You  can  form  no  idea  of  how  very 
grateful  the  thousands  of  people  here  are  to  you  for  having 
produced  this  vessel.  General  "Wool "  (then  commanding  the 
Department  of  Virginia,  with  headquarters  at  Fort  Monroe) 
"  told  me  he  considered  you  the  greatest  man  living.  General 
Maiistield  said  to  me  that  our  battle  was  of  more  importance 
than  if  the  whole  army  of  the  Potomac  had  moved  success- 


THE  SUCCESS   OF  THE  MONITOE.  29] 

fully  against  the  enemy.  We  are  remarkably  popular  on  shore 
here,  and  I  confess  it  made  me  very  proud  when  such  men  as 
General  Wool  and  General  Mansfield  grasped  me  by  the  hand 
with  both  their  own,  and  told  me  they  were  very  proud  to  make 
my  acquaintance." 

Ericsson's  personal  friends  were  naturally  delighted  at  find- 
ing all  the  world  joining  with  them  in  proclaiming  his  masterly 
ability,  already  shown  in  so  many  ways  but  so  imperfectly 
recognized.  "  God  bless  you,  Captain,''  wrote  Professor  Mapes, 
on  the  day  after  the  fight;  "you  have  long  deserved  the  grati- 
tude of  mankind,  and  now  you  have  been  able  to  appeal  to  the 
keenest  nerve  of  human  susceptibility  and  they  can  no  longer 
withhold  the  full  measure  of  praise  so  long  and  so  justly  due 
to  your  genius  and  assiduity." 

From  Home,  John  O.  Sargent  wrote,  March  31,  1862  : 

Private  letters  received  here  state  that  both  Washington  and  New 
York  were  in  a  state  of  great  consternation  when  it  was  known  that  the 
Cumberland  and  Congress  had  been  sunk,  and  that  the  relief  when  the 
achievement  of  the  Monitor  was  known  was  indescribable.  Tour  tri- 
umph has  been  complete.  The  opinion  is  generally  entertained  here 
that  you  were  on  board.  I  hope  not.  It  is  an  awful  pill  for  John  Bull. 
The  Times  is  sneaking  about  it  as  usual,  and  gives  the  world  to  under- 
stand that  the  Merrimac  was  only  disabled  by  "  another  iron-clad  frigate  " 
— not  wishing  it  to  appear  that  this  little  gunboat  would  handle  the 
Warrior  or  La  Gloire  as  well  as  the  Merrimac.  Epes  wrote  me  on  March 
11th,  that  the  one  name  on  eveiybody's  lips  for  the  last  two  days  has  been 
Ericsson's.  Ericsson  is  hailed  as  the  gi-eat  deliverer.  The  old  fogies  who 
have  opposed  him  are  humbled  and  silenced.  Hurrah  !  The  salvation 
of  fleets  was  never  carried  in  so  small  a  compass  before.  What  would  not 
the  Merrimac  have  done  but  for  the  timely  appearance  of  the  Monitor  ? 

Two  years  later  Mr.  Sargent  wrote  from  Paris  that  no 
other  event  of  the  war  had  created  more  excitement  and  inter- 
est in  Europe. 

From  Ericsson's  native  land  came  numerous  congratulations, 
and  these  he  valued  most  highly.  The  Consul  of  the  United 
States  at  Stockholm  wrote  to  the  Department  of  State  at 
Washington,  saying : 

I  have  the  honor  to  inform  yoii  that  the  delight  of  the  Swedes  in  re- 
gard to  the  success  of  the  Monitor  in  her  combat  with  the  Merrimac  is 


292  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

manifesting  itself  to-day  on  'Change,  by  the  raising  of  a  subscription 
for  a  large  and  si:)lendid  gold  medal  which  is  intended  to  be  transmitted 
to  America  and  iiresented  to  Mr.  Ericsson,  the  constructor  of  the  Moni- 
tor. The  Swedish  Government  has  had  for  some  time  the  intention  of 
enlarging  her  navy,  and  for  this  puri:)Ose  has  had  in  existence  a  com- 
mittee of  scientific  gentlemen,  whose  duty  it  was  to  examine  and  report 
upon  the  best  and  most  practical  character  of  ships  for  construction  ;  but 
the  result  of  the  action  between  the  Monitor  and  the  Mei'rimac  has  sud- 
denly brought  the  labors  of  the  committee  to  a  stand,  and  they  have 
determined  to  make  no  report  until  the  result  of  further  trials  with 
Ericsson's  invention  are  made  known.  The  contest  above  alluded  to  haa 
proved  most  fortunate  for  Sweden,  as  it  has  undoubtedly  saved  her  an 
immense  outlay  in  a  comparatively  useless  direction  ;  hence  the  Swedes 
and  the  Swedish  Government  have  good  reason  to  be  truly  thankful  to 
Mr.  Ericsson  and  the  American  Government,  for  having  inaugurated  a 
principle  which  will  in  the  end  save  them  so  much  money. 

Among  Ericsson's  English  friends  was  Sir  Charles  Fox,  to 
wliom  he  had  given  his  first  employment  as  a  civil  engineer, 
who  was  subseqnentlj  knighted  for  his  work  in  connection  with 
the  Great  Exhibition  in  Hyde  Park,  1851,  and  whose  name  is 
connected  with  many  extensive  railroads  and  other  engineering 
works.  From  London  Sir  Charles  sent  his  greetings  to  his 
old  friend,  saying : 

Spring  Garden,  London,  June  6,  1862. 
My  Drah  Sir  :  I  have  been  wishing  to  write  to  you  for  some  time 
past,  to  offer  you  my  congratulations  on  the  success  of  the  Monitor, 
which  I  assure  you  aflbrded  me  much  satisfaction,  as  in  fact  anything 
would  do  which  tended  to  advance  the  welfare  of  one  whose  friendship 
I  shall  always  look  back  upon  with  much  satisfaction  as  ha\'ing  been 
manifested  at  a  period  when  it  was  of  the  greatest  value  to  me  and  in  so 
disinterested  a  manner.  Not  long  since  I  went  to  post  a  letter  at  Char- 
ing Cross,  when  at  the  same  moment  a  lady  also  dropped  a  letter  into  the 
box.  We  accidentally  looked  at  each  other,  when  I  saw  that  I  was  recog- 
nized, and  upon  looking  more  closely  I  found  myself  face  to  face  with 
Mrs.  Ericsson,  whom  I  had  not  seen  for  many  years.  I  at  once  received 
the  kindest  invitation  to  call  upon  her  at  her  residence  at  Kensington,  of 
which  I  was  not  long  in  availing  myself,  and  was  pleased  to  find  your  wife 
in  a  small,  but  very  comfortable  and  nicely  furnished  cottage.  We  spoke 
much  of  you,  and  I  was  not  a  little  pleased  with  the  kind  expressions  with 
regard  to  you  which  I  listened  to  as  they  fell  from  her  lips.  Mrs.  Erics- 
son is  delighted  at  your  success  and  reads  every  account  of  the  Moni- 
tor with  the  deepest  interest,  and  is  still  ventming  to  hope  that  you 


THE   SUCCESS   OF   THE   MONITOE.  293 

will  one  day  return  to  England,  and  afiford  her  the  opportunity  of  again 
proving  the  affection  which  she  has  ever  cherished  for  you. 

If  you  can,  without  trouble,  occasionally  forward  me  a  paper  contain- 
ing anything  of  interest  respecting  yourself,  by  doing  so  you  will  confer 
a  favor  on  Your  faithful  friend, 

Chakles  Fox. 

Mrs.  Ericsson  sent  her  own  congratulations  as  follows : 

No.  2,  Canning  Place,  Gloucester  Road, 
Kensington  Gate,  April  2,  1862. 

I  duly  received  the  illustrated  paper  announcing  the  most  surpris- 
ing intelligence  of  the  result  of  your  genius,  which  I  think  has  startled 
all  Europe.  Your  triumph  has  at  length  arrived,  at  a  crisis  which  must 
make  your  heart  palpitate  with  a  pride  and  joy  almost  too  exquisite  to 
endure.  You  are  now  on  an  eminence  from  which  you  can  survey  with 
sco7-n  those  in  Europe  who  never  gave  you  a  fair  field  for  your  talents. 
The  Times'  leading  article  is  fraught  with  the  subject  of  your  success, 
and  it  has  come  like  a  thunderbolt  upon  all  nations  and  I  think  has 
truly  verified  what  you  stated  in  your  last  letter,  "  that  England  would 
shortly  tremble  "  at  the  revolution  which  would  take  place  in  warfare. 

Probably  you  doubt  my  assurance  when  I  tell  you  that  my  gratifica- 
tion at  your  triumph  over  all  the  world  makes  my  nights  sleepless  with 
excitement,  and  though  in  reality  I  am  not  tangibly  identified  with  it,  I 
am  in  heart  and  soul  made  happy.  The  word  of  praise  from  vie  would 
fall  listlessly  on  your  ear  when  all  are  proclaiming  your  achievements,  so 
good  taste  dictates  I  should  be  silent ;  yet,  notwithstanding,  my  sympa- 
thies are  fully  enlisted.  My  prayer  for  your  success  has  been  granted  by 
Providence  for  this  proud  climax  of  your  reputation,  and  I  feel  sure 
soon  in  the  midst  of  the  tumultuous  roar  of  praise  and  idolatry  by  which 
you  are  surrounded  a  stray  thought  of  yours  will  waft  its  way  to  my 
home. 

You  are  by  this  time  in  possession  of  mine  of  March  19th,  to  which 
I  trust  soon  to  have  an  answer.  With  earnest  wishes  that  your  health 
may  be  preserved  and  that  every  happiness  may  attend  you,  I  am  as 
ever,  Ameua. 

P.  S. — A  thousand  thanks  for  your  kindness  in  sending  me  the 
paper. 

This  letter  is  interesting,  not  only  as  a  part  of  Ericsson's 
history  at  this  period  but  because  of  the  light  it  throws  upon 
liis  relations  to  his  wife.  The  correspondence  between  them 
had  reference  chiefly  to  his  i-emittances  for  her  support,  but  it 
was  constant,  and  occasionally  illuminated  by  flashes  of  the  old 
affection  which  seems  never  to  have  died  out  from  the  heart  of 


29-4  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

either.  All  the  letters  from  Mrs.  Ericsson  found  among  her 
husband's  files  are  endorsed  in  his  handwriting  "  Duck,"  the 
familiar  name  by  which  she  was  known  to  him  and  to  her  fam- 
ily. She  was  a  woman  of  great  kindness  of  heart  but  wayward 
in  disposition.  Tliey  parted  with  mutual  consent,  and  as  she 
would  not  come  to  the  LTnited  States,  and  he  could  not  return  to 
England,  they  never  met  again. 

March  2S,  1862,  the  37th  Congress,  during  its  second  ses- 
sion, passed  this  joint  resolution  : 

Resolved  hy  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of 

America  in  Congress  assembled, 

That  it  is  fit  and  proper  that  a  public  acknowledgment  be  made  to 
Captain  John  Ericsson,  for  his  entei-prise,  skill,  energy,  and  forecast,  dis- 
played by  him  in  the  constniction  of  his  iron-clad  boat  the  Monitor, 
which,  under  gallant  and  able  management,  came  so  opportunely  to  the 
rescue  of  our  fleet  in  Hampton  Roads,  and  perchance,  of  all  our  coast 
defences  near,  and  arrested  the  work  of  destmction  then  being  success- 
fully prosecuted  by  the  enemy  with  their  iron-clad  steamers,  seemingly 
irresistible  by  any  other  power  at  our  command — and  that  the  thanks  of 
Congress  are  hereby  presented  to  him  for  the  great  service  which  ho 
has  thus  rendered  to  the  country. 

The  Legislature  of  Xew  York  also  passed  resolutions  thank- 
ing Ericsson  for  his  great  services  to  the  country.  These  were 
handsomely  engrossed  on  parchment,  set  in  a  fine  gilt  frame 
on  which  were  depicted  the  Jfonitor  and  its  construction,  and 
presented  by  a  committee  of  si.x  members  of  the  Legislature. 
They  ever  after  hung  in  a  place  of  honor  in  Ericsson's  house. 
Some  of  the  leading  engineering  establishments  and  shipbuild- 
ing firms  also  presented  a  magnificent  model  of  the  Monitor 
made  of  gold,  weighing  upward  of  fourteen  pounds  and  costing 
$7,000.  The  entire  detail  of  the  turret,  the  machinery,  etc., 
was  represented  in  this  model.  It  proved  a  white  elephant, 
however,  as  its  presentation  established  a  "  claim  "  upon  the 
part  of  the  artist,  and  after  expending  $4,000  in  answering 
these  demands,  and  in  keeping  tliis  valuable  piece  of  plate  in- 
sured, Captain  Ericsson  finally  sent  it  to  the  goldsmith's  to  be 
melted  up.  It  yielded  $600  for  its  metal  and  the  proceeds 
were  devoted  to  charity. 


THE   SUCCESS   OF   THE   MONITOR.  295 

Immediately  upon  the  receipt  of  the  news  from  Hampton 
Koads  a  special  meeting  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  the 
City  of  New  York  was  called  for  March  12,  1862.  Ericsson 
was  invited  to  attend,  and  he  received  the  warmest  possible 
greeting  when  he  entered  the  Chamber  under  the  escort  of  one 
of  the  members,  Mr.  Prosper  W.  Wetmore,  on  whose  motion 
he  was  unanimously  chosen  an  honorary  member.  The  Cham- 
ber then  adopted  with  great  enthusiasm  these  resolutions  offered 
by  Mr,  Charles  Gould  : 

Resolved,  That  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  the  State  of  New  York 
gratefully  recognize,  and  desire  to  place  on  record,  their  profound  sense 
of  the  obligations  under  which  Captain  Ericsson  has  placed  the  people 
of  the  United  States.  To  his  genius  and  activity  is  due  their  salvation 
from  a  national  disgrace,  and  disasters  for  which  otherwise  there  could 
have  been  no  remedy. 

Resolved,  That  the  floating  battery  Moyiitor  deserves  to,  and  will  be 
forever  mentioned  with  gratitude  and  admiration. 

Resolved,  That  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  expect  that  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  will  make  to  Captain  Ericsson  such  suitable 
return  for  his  inestimable  services  as  will  evince  the  gratitude  of  a  great 
nation. 

Resolved,  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions,  duly  certified,  be  for- 
warded to  Captain  Ericsson  and  to  the  President  of  the  United  States. 

Captain  Ericsson  was  called  upon  and  delivered  a  speech — 
the  only  one  by  him  found  upon  record.  A  report  of  this  is 
entered  in  the  Minutes  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  as  fol- 
lows : 

Captain  Ericsson,  during  his  remarks,  alluding  to  the  voyage  of  the 
Monitor  to  Fortress  Monroe,  said : 

I  cannot  permit  this  opportunity  to  pass  without  saying  that  I  look 
u^wn  the  success  of  that  as  being  entirely  owing  to  the  presence  of  a 
master-mind  [Mr.  Stimers].  The  men  were  new ;  their  passage  had 
been  veiy  rough,  and  the  master  had  to  put  his  vessel  right  under  the 
heaviest  guns  that  were  ever  worked  on  shipboard.  It  is  evident  that 
but  for  the  presence  of  a  master-mind  on  board  of  that  vessel,  that  suc- 
cess could  not  have  been  achieved.  Captain  Worden,  no  doubt,  ac- 
quitted himself  in  the  most  masterly  manner.  But  everything  was 
quite  new.  He  felt  quite  nervous  before  he  went  on  board.  The  fact 
that  the  bulwark  of  the  vessel  was  but  one  foot  above  the  water-line 
was  enough  to  make  him  so.  When  I  was  before  the  Naval  Committee 
the  grand  objection  was  that  in  sea-way  the  vessel  would  not  work.     I 


296  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

gave  it  as  my  opinion  that  it  would  prove  the  most  easy-working  in  sea- 
way, and  it  is  an  excellent  sea  boat.  The  men  are  supplied  with  fresh 
air,  though  there  is  no  oi^ening  except  through  the  turret,  by  means  of 
blowers  worked  by  the  engines,  and  they  are  perfectly  comfortable. 
They  can  remain  in  the  top  of  the  turret  in  the  sea-way  ;  it  is  sixty  feet 
in  circumference — quite  a  promenade.  Though  the  deck  is  but  a  foot 
above  the  water-line,  the  top  of  the  turret  is  nine  feet  above  ;  and  here 
is  the  important  point,  that  this  vessel  is  in  the  sea-way  perhaps  the 
safest  vessel  ever  built.  It  takes  six  hundred  and  seventy  thousand 
pounds  to  bring  her  down.  There  can  be  no  danger  of  her  swamping. 
It  is  very  much  like  a  bottle  with  a  cork  in  it. 

In  relation  to  the  point  whether  the  Monitor  is  capable  of  taking  care 
of  the  Merrimac,  let  me  say  that  she  would  have  sunk  the  Merruiinc  but 
for  the  fact  of  her  having  fired  too  high.  If  they  had  kept  off  at  a  dis- 
tance of  two  hundred  yards,  and  held  the  gun  exactly  level,  the  shot 
would  have  gone  clear  through.  But  Mr.  Stimers  had  the  guns  ele- 
vated a  little,  and  the  roof  of  the  Merrimac  is  so  strong  that  the  balls 
rebounded.  Next  time  they  encounter  the  Merrimac  they  will  have  the 
guns  level,  and  they  won't  mind  if  the  ball  strikes  the  water,  because 
the  ricochet  will  take  it  where  they  want  it.  The  next  time  they  go 
out  I  predict  the  third  round  wiU  sink  the  Merrimac. 

There  is  another  great  point.  They  had  fifty  wrought-iron  shot 
which  were  not  used.  Captain  Dahlgren  issued  peremptory  orders  that 
they  should  not  be  used,  and  they  obeyed  those  orders.  Now,  a  wrought- 
iron  shot  is  one  thing,  and  a  cast-iron  shot  is  another.  A  wrought-iron 
shot  cannot  break.  The  side-armor  of  the  Merrimac  is  insufficient  to 
resist  it.  The  channel  is  very  narrow,  and  the  Merrimac  must  follow 
it.     But  the  3Io7iitor  can  go  anywhere  and  take  the  very  best  position. 

The  mercliants  of  Xew  York  might  vreW  do  honor  to  the 
constructor  of  the  Mo7iito)\  for  througli  his  instrumentality 
their  anxious  dreams  of  the  destruction  of  their  wealth  had 
been  set  at  rest,  and  their  hope  of  final  victory  over  the  rebel- 
lious States  revived.  Tlie  news  of  the  repulse  of  the  Merri- 
mac liad  followed  hard  upon  a  despatch  of  General  "Wool  to 
the  authorities  at  "Washington,  announcing  that  probably  both 
the  Minnesota  and  Si.  Lawrence  would  be  captured,  and  say- 
ing :  "  It  was  thought  that  the  Merrimac  and  Jamestown  and 
Yorhtown  would  pass  the  fort  to-night  [Sunday,  March  8th]. 
It  was  also  admitted  tliat  if  the  Merrimac  prepared  to  attack 
the  fort  it  would  be  only  a  question  of  a  few  days  when  it  must 
be  abandoned."  As  the  Couite  de  Paris  says  in  his  history  of 
our  war ; 


THE  SUCCESS   OF   THE   MONITOR.  297 

"  All  the  previsions  of  the  Federals,  founded  upon  the  supe- 
riority of  their  magnificent  fleet  of  wooden  vessels,  would  have 
disappeared  with  the  Cumherland  and  the  Congress.  The  war 
would  have  changed  front,  and  the  Confederate  flag,  opening  a 
new  era  in  marine  warfare,  would  easily  have  raised  the  block- 
ade which  prevented  the  Slave  States  from  freely  procuring 
supplies  in  Europe." 

A  member  of  the  New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce,  famil- 
iar with  the  circumstances  of  that  time,  afterward  wrote  to 
Ericsson,  saying : 

I  recall  the  situation  in  which  this  city  was  placed  in  the  opening 
weeks  of  the  war  growing  out  of  the  Rebellion,  and  when  on  several 
occasions  the  Mayor  of  New  York  (Mr.  George  Opdyke)  called  together 
in  council  some  of  its  trusted  citizens,  eminent  in  various  callings,  to 
devise  means  for  defending  its  approaches.  The  best  plan  that  could 
be  suggested  was  to  form  "  rafts  "  or  "  floats  "  of  timber  which  should  oc- 
cupy the  channels  and  be  held  in  place  by  anchorage  and  chains.  For 
this  purpose  and  to  this  end  considerable  sums  of  money  were  unof- 
ficially expended.  It  was  not  then  made  known  to  them  that  you  were 
engaged  on  your  first  monitor — and  even  had  it  come  to  their  knowl- 
edge, it  is  doubtful  whether,  with  their  lack  of  scientific  information, 
their  fears  would  have  been  allayed. 

When  the  final  hour  of  trial  came,  and  the  best  efibrts  of  the  navy- 
had  been  uselessly  expended  against  the  Merrimac  (the  source  of  all  our 
anxiety),  then  it  was  that  the  Moyiitor,  almost  unknown,  with  its  magic 
presence  appeared  to  give  victory  to  our  arms  and  forever  make  secure 
our  harbors  from  a  foreign  attack.  The  controlling  power  of  other  ves- 
sels, soon  after  constructed  on  the  Monitor  plan,  redeemed  our  navy 
from  the  inefficiency  and  contempt  with  which  it  was  regarded  by  our 
enemies,  as  well  as  the  naval  powers  of  the  world. 

"  Great  was  the  joy  in  the  Xorth,"  says  another  chronicle 
of  the  times,  "  when  news  came  that  the  Monitor  had  turned 
the  current  of  affairs,  but  greater  yet  was  it  in  Washington 
where  boats  were  laden  with  stone  to  be  sunk  in  the  channel, 
in  case  the  Merrimac  destroyed  her  adversaries." 

Lieutenant  (afterward  Admiral)  "Worden,  who  commanded 
the  Monitor,  was  much  disturbed  by  Ericsson's  speech  at  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce.  Two  years  after  the  fight,  Ericsson's 
associate,  John  A.  Griswold,  said,  in  a  letter  dated  from  the 
national  House  of  Kepresentatives :  "  I  have  just  had  a  call  from 


298  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

Captain  Worden.  lie  thinks  you  did  him  injustice  in  your 
Clianiber  of  Commerce  remarks  for  the  sake  of  complimenting 
Stimers,  and  says  the  '  master  spirit '  had  nothing  at  all  to  do 
with  the  affair  of  the  Mei^imac^  was  not  consulted,  and  was  in 
no  special  way  tributary  to  the  result  of  that  combat." 

With  this  opinion  Ericsson  did  not  agree.  In  the  only  offi- 
cial report  concerning  the  action  of  the  Monitar  on  the  9th 
of  March,  which  was  in  the  shape  of  a  telegram  from  the 
Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Xavy,  of  that  date,  to  the  Depart- 
ment, Mr.  Fox  says  :  "  Lieutenant  Worden,  who  commanded 
the  Mojiitor,  handled  her  with  great  skill,  and  was  assisted  by 
Chief  Engineer  Stimers." 

Mr.  Stimers  won  upon  Ericsson  by  his  absolute  faith  in  the 
Monitor,  which  went  much  beyond  that  displayed  by  those  in 
control  of  her.     March  24,  1S62,  he  wrote : 

I  told  the  Flag  (Flag-Officer  Goldsborough)  my  idea  of  what  should 
be  done  as  follows  :  "We  get  under  way  between  two  and  three  o'clock  in 
the  morning,  and  at  five,  as  daylight  commences  to  break,  we  would  be 
alongside  of  the  Meitimac  in  Norfolk,  throwing  in  our  heav7  shot.  After 
demolishing  her  we  would  come  back,  and  if  they  placed  any  obstruc- 
tions in  our  way  we  would  tell  them  to  remove  them  or  we  would  razee 
their  town  with  shells.  The  old  gentleman  and  his  Fleet  Captain  looked 
at  each  other  in  mutual  astonishment  and  pleasure ;  they  appeared  to 
think  that  it  was  almost  too  much  of  a  madcap  scheme  to  be  practicable, 
but  I  do  not  despair  of  being  permitted  to  put  it  into  practice  just  as  soon 
as  the  embargo  upon  us  is  let  up,  which  will  be  the  case  as  soon  as  the 
one  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  troops,  now  arriving,  can  come  and  go 
again  in  safety. 

Confederate  accounts  indicate  that  this  plan  would  have 
succeeded,  if  carried  out  with  energy  and  skill.  The  "  Commit- 
tee on  the  Conduct  of  the  War,"  in  their  report  (vol.  i.,  p.  62) 
say  :  "  Had  Norfolk  been  captured  during  the  winter  of  1861- 
62,  and  the  Merriviac  taken  possession  of  or  destroyed,  the 
way  to  Richmond  would  have  been  opened  and  the  fatal  delays 
of  the  Peninsula  avoided."  The  failure  to  accomplish  all  that 
was  expected  and  intended  was  one  of  the  bitter  disappoint- 
ments of  Ericsson's  life.  When  he  first  heard  of  the  engage- 
ment he  exclaimed  :  "  The  Monitor  ought  to  have  sunk  her  in 
fifteen  minutes." 


THE  SUCCESS   OF  THE  MONITOR.  299 

The  Chief  Engineer  of  the  Monitor,  First  Assistant  Engineer 
Kewton,  questioned  afterwards  bj  the  "War  Committee  of  Con- 
gress why  the  battle  was  not  more  promptly  decided  against 
the  Virginia  or  Merrimac,  answered :  "  It  was  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  power  and  endurance  of  the  11-inch  Dahlgren  guns, 
with  which  the  Monitor  was  armed,  were  not  known  at  the 
time  of  the  battle ;  lience  the  commander  would  scarcely  have 
been  justified  in  increasing  the  charge  of  powder  above  that 
authorized  in  the  '  Ordnance  Manual.'  Subsequent  experiments 
developed  the  important  fact  that  these  guns  could  be  fired 
with  thirty  pounds  of  cannon  powder,  with  solid  shot.  If  this 
had  been  known  at  the  time  of  the  action,  I  am  clearly  of 
opinion  that,  from  the  close  quarters  at  which  Lieutenant  Wor- 
den  fought  his  vessel,  the  enemy  would  have  been  forced  to 
surrender.  .  .  .  But  for  the  injury  received  by. Lieutenant 
Worden,  that  vigorous  officer  would  very  likely  have  badgered 
the  Merrimac  to  a  surrender," 

This  want  of  faith  in  the  11-inch  Dahlgrens  was  not  shared 
by  Ericsson,  and  at  that  period  his  opinion  on  a  question  of 
guns  was  worth  more  than  that  of  anyone  else,  and  it  was  justi- 
fied by  the  event.  His  experience  had  been  large  and  his 
studies  exhaustive.  Commencing  with  his  training  as  an  ar- 
tillerist in  the  Swedish  army,  they  extended  through  the  period 
of  his  labors  in  connection  with  the  Princeton  and  so  down 
to  the  date  of  the  completion  of  the  Monitor.  Ilis  mastery  of 
this  subject  was  shown  a  little  later  on  in  his  complete  victory 
over  united  ordnance  opinion  in  England,  in  a  controversy  which 
he  conducted  through  the  columns  of  the  New  York  Army 
and  Namj  Journal. 

But  the  Virginia  had  created  at  Washington,  and  through- 
out the  North,  an  exaggerated  fear  of  her  prowess.  Hence  the 
peremptory  orders  to  take  no  risks,  and  in  war  all  is  risk.  So 
the  help  McCleilan  counted  on  receiving  from  the  navy  on  the 
opening  of  his  campaign  against  Riclimond,  by  way  of  the 
Yorktown  peninsula,  was  denied  to  him,  that  the  Merrimac 
might  be  watched,  instead  of  destroyed. 

As  to  operating  in  the  James,  the  Confederate  authority 
before  quoted  says  :  "  Possibly  we  might  have  taken  the  Vir- 
ginia as  far  as  Harrison's  Bar,  but  such  action  would  have 


300  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

been  absurd  from  every  point  of  view.  As  the  enemy  occupied 
both  sides  of  the  river  above,  we  could  neither  coal  nor  provision 
her,  and  would  have  been  compelled  to  destroy  her  in  a  few 
days,  if  she  remained  so  long  uncaptured."  lie  says  further: 
"  The  truth  was  that  the  ship  was  not  weatherly  enough  to  move 
in  Hampton  Roads  at  all  times  with  safety,  and  she  never  could 
have  been  moved  more  than  three  hours'  sail  from  a  machine 
shop.  A  shell  or  two  amidships,  between  wind  and  water  (she 
had  no  knuckle)  and  her  career  was  closed.  She  drew  twenty- 
two  feet  of  water,  was  in  every  respect  ill-proportioned  and 
top-heavy  ;  and  what  with  her  immense  length  and  wretched 
engines  (than  which  a  more  ill-contrived,  spindling,  and  unreli- 
able pair  were  never  made ;  failing  on  one  occasion  while  the 
ship  was  under  fire)  she  was  little  more  navigable  than  a  tim- 
ber-raft. Her  quarters  for  the  crew  were  close,  damp,  ill-venti- 
lated, and  unhealthy  ;  one-third  of  the  men  were  always  on  the 
sick  list  and  were  most  always  transferred  to  the  liospital, 
where  they  would  convalesce  immediately.  She  steered  very 
badly  and  both  her  rudder  and  screw  were  wholly  unprotected. 
Every  man  and  officer  well  understood  the  utter  feebleness  of 
the  ship,  and  the  terrible  efiiciency  of  the  enemy's  magnificent 
fleet.  Most  of  the  men  had  taken,  as  they  supposed,  a  last 
farewell  of  wives,  children,  friends,  and  had  set  in  order  their 
worldly  affairs.  All  the  lieutenants  (Catesby  Jones  excepted) 
had  several  weeks  previously  partaken  publicly  of  the  holy  sac- 
rament." 

Yet  throughout  the  South  expectation  as  to  the  perform- 
ance of  the  Confederate  vessel  ran  high,  and  they  were  as  con- 
fident as  were  the  Philistines  when  "  they  were  gathered  to- 
gether at  Siiochoh  "  and  sent  forth  their  champion,  Goliath  of 
Gath,  "  armed  with  a  coat  of  mail."  In  correspondence  with 
these  hopes  were  the  exaggerated  alarms  that  spread  through- 
out the  North,  having  Washington  for  their  centre.  In  the 
imagination  of  the  excitable  Stanton  hot  shot  were  already  set- 
tinir  fire  to  the  White  House.  The  Merrimac  was  first  to  take 
the  Capitol,  following  the  British  precedent  of  1S12.  Xext 
she  was  to  levy  tribute  on  New  York,  and,  after  raising  the 
blockade  of  the  Southern  ports,  she  was  to  rival  the  splendid 
career  of  the  Alabama.     She  was  to  secure  the  possession  of 


THE  SUCCESS   OF   THE   MONITOR.  301 

Hampton  Roads,  whicli  would  have  made  McClellan's  penin- 
sula campaign  impossible,  and  all  other  campaigns  requiring 
the  control  of  the  York,  the  James,  and  the  Appomattox. 
Fort  Monroe  was  to  be  captured  and  the  way  opened  for  for- 
eign vessels  to  the  very  gates  of  Eichmond,  The  foreign 
friends  of  the  Confederacy  were  to  have  tlieir  hands  so  strength- 
ened that  they  could  secure  the  great  prize  of  recognition. 

What  might  have  followed  had  the  destruction  of  the  Vir- 
ginia coincided  more  nearly  with  McClellan's  advent  on  the 
Peninsula  is  suggested  by  what  Pollard  in  his  "  Secret  History 
of  the  Confederacy  "  (p.  224)  tells  us  of  the  effect  of  her  self- 
destruction  when,  a  few  months  later,  on  May  10,  1862,  she  was 
blown  up  by  her  commander  "  within  sight  of  the  Ctnnhe7'land''s 
top-gallant-masts  all  awash,"  According  to  Pollard  this  catastro- 
phe nearly  resulted  in  the  surrender  of  Richmond  and  created 
a  public  grief  so  wild  and  bitter  that  at  one  time  it  was  feared 
the  building  in  which  were  collected  the  departments  of  the 
Confederate  Government  might  be  stormed  by  a  mob.  The 
vessel  had  been  fondly  named  the  "  iron  diadem  of  the  South," 
and  it  was  counted  the  equivalent  of  an  army  of  fifty  thousand 
men  in  defence  of  the  Confederate  capital. 

These  expectations  and  fears  may  seem  exaggerated  in  the 
light  of  to-day,  but,  in  the  Spring  of  1862,  they  were  very  real 
to  those  who  were  watching  with  hope  or  with  dread  the  career 
of  the  Confederate  iron-clad  Merrimac.  They  contributed 
their  part  to  the  estimation  in  Mdiicli  the  services  of  Ericsson 
were  held,  and  to  the  confidence  in  him  which  placed  the  build- 
ing of  an  iron-clad  navy  for  the  United  States  at  his  disposal, 
securing  for  him  the  control  in  the  important  concerns  of  a 
great  nation  such  as  has  rarely  been  accorded  to  a  private  citi- 
zen, however  eminent  his  ability.  "  The  immediate  results  of 
the  conflict  between  the  Monitor  and  the  Merrimac^''  says 
Swinton  in  his  "  Twelve  Decisive  Battles,"  "  was  obviously  the 
overthrow  of  the  great  projects  conceived  by  the  latter  vessel, 
the  salvation  of  the  Union  squadron,  and  the  preservation  of 
the  blockade  and  of  Fort  Monroe.  Its  wider  result  was  to  fur- 
nish to  the  Union  a  new  engine  of  warfare,  which,  rapidly  and 
cheaply  constructed,  proved  impregnable  in  defence  and  irre- 
sistible in  attack. 


302  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

"The  15-incli  gun  in  the  impregnable  Monitor  turret, 
mutters  witli  its  deep  voice,  '  Hands  off  ! '  to  whatever  transat- 
lantic nation  juight  before  have  meditated  an  interference  in 
the  American  war.  Before  the  rapidity  of  the  achievement 
was  comprehended  a  squadron  of  monitors  patrolled  the  At- 
lantic seaboard,  capable  of  destroying  any  fleet  that  might 
challenge  entrance  to  its  harbors.  The  lesson  was  not  lost 
upon  foreign  ministers,  who  inclined  to  think  twice  before  en- 
countering this  new  and  terrible  engine  of  defence. 

"  The  story  of  the  battle  of  Hampton  Eoads  created  the 
profoundest  sensation  in  the  court  of  every  maritime  nation. 
For  months,  not  only  the  scientific,  but  the  popular  journals 
were  filled  with  the  discussion  of  its  merits  and  its  meaning ; 
the  professional  naval  world  was  profoundly  agitated  ;  ad- 
miralty boards  and  ministers  of  marine  conned  its  details;  in 
fine,  Russia  and  Sweden  promptly  accepted  the  Monitor  as  the 
solution  of  the  naval  problem  of  the  age,  and  followed  the  lead 
of  America  in  reconstructing  their  navies  on  that  system. 
France  and  England  had,  unfortunately  for  themselves,  been 
committed  to  the  broadside  iron-clad  before  the  introduction  of 
the  Monitory  and  the  enormous  sums  already  laid  out — enough 
to  build  many  squadrons  of  monitors — joined  to  some  national 
pride,  and,  in  the  case  of  England  at  least,  reinforced  by  a 
wondrous  obstinacy  of  depreciation  only  to  be  understood  when 
one  reads  such  histories  as  that  of  the  screw-propeller — these 
causes  prevented  the  renunciation  in  France  and  England  of 
their  iron-clad  navies  already  built,  and  the  substitution  of  the 
turreted  Monitor. 

"  However,  in  both  countries  the  combat  of  March  9th  was 
received  with  the  profoundest  study,  and  was  regarded  as  the 
death-stroke  to  wooden  war  vessels.  In  England,  on  hearing 
the  news  of  the  battle,  the  House  of  Commons,  in  obedience  to 
general  sentiment,  stopped  at  once  the  great  military  project 
of  building  forts  at  Spithead  for  the  defence  of  Portland. 
The  Defence  Commission,  too,  was  hastily  reassembled  for  the 
special  purpose  of  considering  the  effect  of  the  '  recent  engage- 
ment that  has  taken  place  in  the  Chesapeake  between  the  naval 
forces  of  the  United  States  and  the  Confederates '  on  the  erec- 
tion of  these  forts.    The  lloyal  Commission  found  '  the  expres- 


THE  SUCCESS   OF  THE  MONITOR.  303 

Bion  of  opinion  which  followed  the  action  of  the  Merrimac 
and  Monitor,''  and  the  doubts  that  took  possession  of  the  pub- 
lic raind  '  thereupon  to  be  not  unreasonable.'  But  when,  not- 
withstanding these  doubts,  the  Commission  had  the  hardihood 
to  recommend  the  construction  of  the  forts,  the  Government, 
again  menaced  by  the  House  of  Commons,  was  forced  to 
abandon  this  position,  and  the  proposed  Spithead  forts  were 
given  up,  reliance  being  had  for  defence,  in  the  future,  upon 
ironclad  vessels." 

The  world  had  begun  to  accept  the  judgment  pronounced 
upon  the  Monitor  and  her  creator  by  the  officer  commanding 
her  antagonist  in  the  Hampton  Roads,  Catesby  Jones,  when 
he  said :  "  I  am  one  of  the  admirers  of  the  Monitor  and  of 
Ericsson.     He  is  a  great  genius." 


2> 


^.J^ 


[At  the  time  he  built  the   Monitor,   1861.] 


LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

RESULTS  FOLLOWING  THE  SUCCESS  OF  THE  MONITOR. 

Confidence  of  the  Government  in  Ericsson  and  His  Plans. — Other  Moni- 
tors Ordered. — Nautical  Doubts. — Yielding  to  Professional  "  Clam- 
or."— Opinion  of  Admiral  Rodgers. — Double  and  Single  Tui-rets. — 
Bureau  Ojiposition. — Imperative  Demand  for  Armor-clads. — Com- 
modore Smith  still  Criticises. — Misconceptions  Concerning  Moni- 
tors.— CajDtain  Fox  converted. — Ericsson's  Eeport  to  the  Depart- 
ment of  State. — The  Dictator  and  the  Puritan. 

EYEi^  before  the  success  of  the  Monitor  was  finally  assured, 
and  public  approval  had  concentrated  upon  Ericsson,  he 
was  able  to  inspire  the  authorities  at  Washington  with  suflicient 
confidence  in  his  plans,  and  in  his  ability  to  carry  them  into  ex- 
ecution, to  induce  them  to  wait  upon  him  before  giving  a  hear- 
ing to  others,  and  while  the  Monitor  was  still  on  the  stocks  it 
was  decided  that  armored  must  supersede  wooden  vessels. 

"  I  wish  we  had  your  vessel  now,"  Commodore  Smith  wrote, 
November  11,  1861.  "The  Government  must  create  a  fleet  of 
plated  gun-boats.  They  will  cost  much  less  and  be  more  eflFec- 
tive  than  the  army.  I  think  the  Department  contemplates 
augmenting  this  description  of  force.  I  am  good  at  making  ob- 
jections and  finding  faults  that  may  not  exist,  nevertheless,  my 
zeal  and  great  anxiety  for  the  success  of  those  first  attempts 
does  not  abate." 

January  6, 18G2,  Mr.  Winslow  reported  that  the  Navy  De- 
partment would  not  authorize  more  than  one  or  two  boats  on 
the  Bureau  plan  until  one  of  the  Ericsson  batteries  was  put  to 
proof.  Mr.  "Winslow  had  it  "from  the  very  highest  source" 
that  if  that  proof  was  satisfactory,  contracts  would  be  given 
Vol.  n.— 1 


2  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

for  as  many  of  the  twenty  additional  armored  vessels  projected 
as  he  and  his  associates  could  build. 

"  You  cannot  imagine,"  wrote  Mr.  Winslow,  January  10, 
1862,  "  the  intense  and  almost  agonizing  anxiety  of  all  the 
heads,  from  the  President  down,  to  have  one  boat  to  itse,  and 
when  I  told  them  that  she  would  be  afloat  and  ready  for  use 
within  one  hundred  loorTcing  days  of  date  of  contract,  they 
raised  their  hands  in  amazement  and  gratitude.  I  assure  you 
the  energy  and  despatch  exhibited  in  the  construction  of  this 
batteiy  is  unequalled  (or  unheard  of)  by  any  contracts  made  by 
the  Government  in  any  of  its  departments,  and  will  give  us  a 
position  and  influence  with  the  Government  in  any  future  con- 
tracts that  will  be  almost  controlling,  and  if  the  battery  comes 
up  to  what  we  have  promised,  I  tell  you  in  all  sincerity  that 
other  plans  and  other  contractors  will  he  noichere.  Our  '  pres- 
tige '  will  be  hard  for  others  to  overcome." 

The  chiefs  of  the  Bureaux  of  Construction  and  Steam  Engi- 
neering were  not  disposed  to  permit  all  the  honors  to  accrue  to  a 
man  outside  of  the  charmed  circle  of  ofl5cial  life,  and  they  made 
strenuous  efforts  to  secure  the  adoption  of  projects  of  their  own, 
and  steadily  antagonized  those  of  Ericsson.  They  could  do  no 
more  than  to  embarrass  the  Assistant  Secretary,  and  the  Chief 
of  the  Bureau  of  Yards  and  Docks,  in  carrying  out  their  plans 
concerning  Ericsson,  by  stirring  up  the  doubts  which  not  unnatur- 
ally arose  as  to  his  ability  to  accomplish  all  he  had  undertaken. 

The  bill  appropriating  ten  millions  of  dollars  for  armored 
vessels  became  a  law.  By  it  the*  question  of  determining  the 
choice  of  plana  was  left  to  the  decision  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Kavy.  This  meant  practically  Assistant-Secretary  Fox,  upon 
whose  judgment  and  patriotism  Secretary  Welles  justly  placed 
the  greatest  reliance.  That  noble  old  sea-dog,  Commodore 
Smith,  in  spite  of  his  sailor  disposition  to  grumble  and  criticise, 
had  firm  faith  in  Ericsson  personally,  and  in  his  vessel  more 
than  in  any  other  iron-clad.  He  does  not  appear  to  have  liad 
unlimited  faith  in  armored  vessels  at  the  best,  but  he  seemed 
convinced,  at  least,  that — to  quote  a  phrase  from  Abraham 
Lincoln — "  for  those  who  liked  that  sort  of  thing,"  Ericsson's 
Monitor  was  "just  the  sort  of  thing  they  would  like." 

"  Commodore  Smith  is  much  pleased  thus  far  and  favors 


FOLLOWING   THE   SUCCESS   OF   THE   MONITOR.  3 

you,"  wrote  one  of  Ericsson's  Washington  correspondents,  Feb- 
ruary 8,  1862.  Two  months  before  this,  on  December  12th, 
the  Commodore  had  himself  said :  "  I  am  overwiiehned  with 
a  rush  of  proposals  for  iron-clad  vessels  and  rams  of  different 
sorts."  To  none  of  these  was  any  heed  given,  for  Mr.  Bushnell 
wrote  again,  February  26th :  "  I  found  on  inquiry  that  no 
plans,  drawings,  or  anything  of  the  kind  have  been  made  yet  for 
the  proposed  twenty  iron-clad  vessels — in  fact,  I  have  it  from  the 
highest  authority  that  everything  depends  upon  the  test  of  your 
battery,  and  that  until  after  her  trial  nothing  M'ill  be  done." 

The  demand  for  armor-clads  had  now  become  imperative, 
and  upon  Ericsson's  broad  shoulders  was  to  rest  the  main  bur- 
den of  carrying  the  Government  through  the  crisis  precipi- 
tated by  the  advent  of  the  Merrimac.  By  the  16th  of  March, 
1862,  or  within  one  week  from  the  encounter  in  Hampton 
Roads,  he  had  received  and  accepted  a  proposition  to  construct 
six  gun-boats  on  the  plan  of  the  Monitor.  Four  were  to  be  com- 
pleted on  or  before  the  31st  of  July  following,  that  is,  within 
a  little  over  four  months,  the  two  others  within  another  month,  or 
on  or  before  the  31st  of  August.  Commodore  Smith  still  ad- 
hered to  his  opinion  that  he  knew  better  than  her  builder  what 
a  monitor  should  be  and  insisted  on  various  modifications  in 
the  original  plan.  It  was  evident  to  his  mind,  among  other 
things,  that  the  Monitor'' s  deck  was  "  too  near  water  to  weath- 
er the  coast  or  even  fight  successfully  in  the  Chesapeake  Bay." 

To  persuade  a  sailor  that  he  could  with  safety  go  to  sea  in  a 
vessel  with  a  deck  so  low  that  the  water,  even  in  ordinary  weath- 
er, made  a  clear  breach  over  it,  was  like  an  attempt  to  induce 
a  Catholic  to  accept  the  Westminster  Catechism,  or  a  Presbyter- 
ian to  declare  his  belief  in  Papal  infallibility.  When  one  of 
the  monitors  w^as  in  subsequent  years  sent  abroad,  Mr.  Fox  tells 
us  that  "the  English  pilot  who  accompanied  her  from  the 
Thames  was  somewhat  suspicious  of  the  strange  craft,  and  had 
his  doubts  of  her  ability  to  stand  a  heavy  sea.  lie  afterward 
said  that  the  first  gale  that  he  encountered,  when  he  saw  a  green 
sea,  eighteen  feet  deep  of  solid  water,  roll  over  her  bow,  he  gave 
himself  up  for  lost,  believing  that  the  vessel  was  going  down 
head  foremost.  But,  the  tops  of  the  turret  keeping  clear  of  the 
terrific  waves,  he  gathered  courage  to  look  around,  and,  seeing 


4  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

an  American  sailor  quietly  sewing  a  patch  upon  liis  trousers, 
apparently  unconscious  of  the  coming  on  board  of  the  water, 
which  all  his  experience  had  taught  him  was  fatal  to  a  ship,  he 
regained  his  equanimity." 

This  misconception  has  by  no  means  disappeared  even  now, 
and  it  was*universal  with  sailors  at  the  time  Ericsson's  first  ves- 
sel was  put  into  commission.  The  very  idea  of  such  a  misbe- 
gotten craft  violently  shocked  nautical  preconceptions,  and  no 
doubt  if  the  rest  of  the  Chief  of  the  5s  aval  Bureau  of  Con- 
struction was  ever  disturbed,  his  nightmare  assumed  the  form 
of  a  voyage  in  a  monitor  with  Mephistopheles,  in  the  guise  of 
Ericsson,  figuring  as  skipper. 

Fortunately,  Assistant-Secretary  Fox  was  by  this  time  a  com- 
plete convert  to  the  monitor  system.  In  a  letter  dated  March 
18,  1S62,  he  said  : 

When  I  spoke  to  you  last  stiinmer  of  a  vessel  of  extraordinary  speed 
and  one  twenty-inch  gun,  invulnerable  so  far  as  the  tower  was  concerned, 
as  a  fit  match  for  the  WaT^or,  I  did  not  think  that  you  would  take  the 
Monitor  as  a  type.  But  my  visit  to  Old  Point,  and  the  conversations  I 
have  held  with  those  on  board  during  the  passage  from  New  York,  as 
well  as  the  reflections  which  have  impressed  themselves  upon  my  mind 
from  witnessing  her  contest  with  the  Meri-imac,  lead  me  to  concur 
fully  in  the  plans  which  you  showed  me  in  New  York  Saturday.  I  shall 
venture  to  offer  some  suggestions  of  detail,  and  you  will  receive  them  in 
the  kind  spirit  which  prompts  them.  Ever  since  my  connection  with  the 
Department,  I  have  used  every  proper  opportunity  to  awaken  an  inter- 
est in  iron-clad  vessels,  and  very  many  associated  with  me,  and  most  es- 
pecially the  Secretary,  have  felt  an  awakening,  but  the  public  slept. 
Most  fortunately,  we  have  met  with  a  disaster — this  is  the  Almighty's 
teaching  always — success  never  gives  a  lesson.     .     . 

We  ought  to  have  a  dozen  monitore  at  least  instead  of  six.  How 
many  can  be  made  in  the  country,  including  your  fast  boat  ? 

Ericsson's  new  monitors  of  the  "  Passaic  class,"  as  they  were 
called,  were  soon  fairly  under  way.  With  his  usual  energy  he 
liad  commenced  upon  his  working  drawings  as  soon  as  the  ves- 
sels were  verbally  agreed  upon.  Ilis  mind  was  a  storehouse 
of  principles  and  precedents  from  which  he  drew  the  material 
for  new  adjustments  and  applications  of  the  mechanical  pow- 
ers.    There  was  in  his  case,  therefore,  no  need  to  delay  for  the 


FOLLOWING  THE  SUCCESS   OF  THE  MONITOE.  O 

laborious  reference  to  authorities.  When  he  had  an  important 
piece  of  work  on  hand  he  would  be  found  occupied  for  several 
days  with  his  own  thoughts,  and  seemingly  idling  away  his  time. 
Then  he  would  call  for  drawing-paper,  and  plans  would  fly  from 
under  his  hands  with  such  rapidity  that  the  swiftest  draughts- 
man could  not  follow  him,  and  with  such  completeness  of  detail 
that  he  did  not  find  it  necessary  to  examine  his  work  after  it 
had  left  the  shop.  The  drawing  representing  the  part  of  the 
machine  requiring  the  most  work  appeared  first  and  the  others 
followed  in  their  order.  One  went  to  this  shop,  or  this  depart- 
ment, and  another  to  that,  and  no  one  knew  what  the  completed 
structure  was  like  until  the  several  parts  were  assembled,  each 
fitting  in  the  others  like  hand  to  glove.  Well  might  Ericsson 
say  that  he  was  able  to  despatch  work  as  other  men  could  not, 
because  his  methods  of  work  were  unlike  those  of  other  men. 

A  month  after  Commodore  Smith  had  written  officially, 
stating  that  a  verbal  agreement  had  been  made  with  Ericsson's 
representatives  for  six  more  vessels,  we  find  him  saying,  under 
date  of  April  14,  1S62  :  "  So  much  importance  has  been  at- 
tached to  verbal  agreements  and  conversations  that  I  feel  it  in- 
cumbent upon  me  to  say  that  no  contract  is  binding  but  that 
which  shall  be  reduced  to  writing.  In  all  this  the  Depart- 
ment does  not  doubt  your  fidelity  and  ability,  and  has  every 
confidence  that  you  will  sustain  the  high  professional  reputa- 
tion you  now  enjoy." 

This  was  well  enougli,  but  Ericsson  might  have  retorted 
that  if  he  had  waited  for  the  completion  of  a  written  con- 
tract, before  beginning  work  upon  the  Monitor,  she  would  not 
have  been  at  Hampton  Roads  on  the  morning  of  March  9th 
to  stay  the  devastating  progress  of  the  Merrimac.  The  writ- 
ten contract  was  finally  filed  in  the  archives  of  the  !N^avy  De- 
partment, and  so  prompt  had  been  Ericsson's  action  tliat  he 
was  able,  on  April  23,  1862,  to  write  to  the  Secretary  of  State, 
Mr.  Seward,  saying : 

New  York,  April  23,  1862. 

Sir  :  The  state  of  the  naval  defence  of  the  country  being  so  intimately 

connected  with  its  international  relations,  I  deem  it  my  duty  to  report 

to  you  that,  under  orders  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  keels  for  six 

vessels  of  the  Monitor  class  of  increased  size  and  speed  have  already 


6  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON, 

been  laid,  I  have  contracted  to  deliver  these  vessels  in  four  months 
from  the  present  time,  and  feel  confident  of  being  able  to  fulfil  the 
agreement.  The  amount  of  mechanical  force  now  concentrated  on  the 
work  is  quite  unprecedented. 

The  speech  of  the  Duke  of  Somerset  in  the  House  of  Lords,  on  the 
4th  inst.,  and  the  news  from  England  to-daj  in  relation  to  the  expedi- 
ents now  adopted  bv  the  Admii-altv  to  avert  the  dangers  suggested  by 
the  recent  developments  in  naval  warfare,  tend  to  prove  that  this  coun- 
tiy  now  occupies  the  vantage  ground.  The  six  vessels  above  alluded 
to  will  be  absolutely  impregnable  against  even  the  last  "  1-t-ton  gun  " 
of  Armstrong,  in  consequence  of  their  sides  being  only  eighteen  inches 
above  water,  a  circumstance  which  converts  their  decks  into  bulwarks 
supporting  the  armor  plate  with  resistless  force.  Our  turrets,  too,  are 
absolutely  impregnable,  as  we  now  make  the  same  11 J  inches  thick — 
all  iron.  Our  guns  of  15-inch  calibre  will  throw  -ISO-pound  shot.  To 
this  enormous  projectile,  the  War-rior,  Black  Prince,  and  the  razeed 
line-of-battle  ships  will  present  only  a  five-inch  iron  plating.  This  thin 
armor  may  be  said  to  offer  no  resistance  to  our  4:50-pound  shot.  Under 
its  teiTific  impact,  the  sides  wiU  be  actually  crushed  in.  England  is 
now  committing  the  serious  blunder  of  attending  to  the  protection  of 
her  guns  alone  by  the  so-called  cupolas.  She  overlooks  the  safety  of 
the  vessel  intended  to  carry  her  guns.  The  British  Admiralty,  it  would 
appear,  can  only  see  in  the  Mcniitor  a  revolving  turret  (erroneously  sup- 
posed to  be  of  English  origin),  forgetting  that  without  the  peculiarly 
constructed  hull  of  the  Monitor,  her  cupola  ships  will  stand  no  chance 
in  a  conflict  with  this  coimtry. 

I  am,  Sir,  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

J.  Ekicsson. 
Hox.  "Wm.  H.  Skwakd, 

Secretary  of  State,  "Washington. 

The  vessels  referred  to  were  the  Passaic,  Montauh,  Cats- 
hill,  jPatajy.sco,  Lehigh,  and  Sangamon,  so  named  bv  the  De- 
partment, which  happily  saved  the  navy  from  the  misfortune 
of  liaving  them  called,  as  was  first  proposed,  the  Impenetrable, 
Penetrator,  Paradox,  Gauntlet,  Palladiuyn,  Agitator. 

June  IS,  1S62,  Mr.  Fox  wrote  a  private  letter  to  Ericsson, 
saying :  "  The  Secretary  has  to-day  decided  to  let  you  build 
two  vessels  of  the  big  class — one  of  one  turret  and  one  of  two 
turrets.  I  am  sorry  it  is  not  four,  but  if  no  new  plans  are  pre- 
sented within  a  few  months,  it  may  be  considered  by  him  de- 
sirable to  build  two  more.  The  official  letter  will  go  to  you  at 
once  for  two." 


FOLLOTVING   THE   SUCCESS   OF   THE   MONITOR.  7 

To  this  most  welcome  communication  this  reply  was  sent : 

New  York,  June  19,  1862. 
Deae  Sir  :  The  receipt  of  your  brief  note  of  yesterday  is  an  event  in 
my  life — I  miglit  say  the  event — as  it  conveys  the  intelligence  that  you 
are  going  to  open  to  me  a  full,  fair  field  where  I  can  concentrate  in  one 
focus  the  result  of  all  the  experience  gained  and  knowledge  acquired 
during  my  long  and  arduous  mechanical  career.  I  will  not  detain  you 
by  complimentaiy  expressions,  but  simply  say  all  my  energies  will  be 
exerted  to  merit,  as  far  as  possible,  the  extraordinary  confidence  you 
place  in  me  relative  to  your  war  ships. 

Yours  truly, 

J.  Eeicsson. 
HoNORiBiiE  G.  Y.  Fox, 

Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  "Washington. 

The  two  vessels  "of  the  big  class"  were  the  Dictator  and 
ih.Q  Pwitan,  referred  to  in  the  previous  letter  as  the  "fast 
boats."  In  reference  to  their  names  Ericsson  wrote :  "  I  am 
much  gratified  that  the  name  Dictator  for  the  first  turret  ship 
has  been  approved  of.  I  have  given  the  shop  name  Protector 
to  the  long  vessel,  but  I  lack  the  courage  of  asking  for  appro- 
bation, having  already,  in  such  a  handsome  manner,  had  my  de- 
sire twice  gratified.  You  will  much  oblige  me  by  naming  the 
ship  at  once.  There  is  greater  practical  convenience  in  start- 
ing with  the  right  name  than  you  probably  are  aware  of." 
The  name  Puritan  chosen  for  the  second  vessel  was  an  im- 
provement on  that  here  suggested. 

Specifications  for  these  two  vessels  had  been  forwarded  on 
May  19,  1S62,  but  they  were  delayed  in  the  Bureaux  at  the 
Xavy  Department;  so  that  it  was  not  until  June  30th  that 
Ericsson  was  able  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  the  amended 
specifications  for  the  first  of  the  two  vessels,  the  single-turreted 
monitor  Dictator.  Without  delay  he  wrote  :  "  The  specifica- 
tions will  be  amended  and  returned  at  once.  Some  of  my  as- 
sociates advise  waiting  to  have  the  contract  signed." 

This  advice  was  certainly  sage,  in  view  of  the  warning  re- 
ceived from  Commodore  Smith  ;  "  but,"  continues  Ericsson,  "  I 
have  put  the  ship-house  in  hand,  and  will  order  the  keel-plate 
to-morrow.  I^uraerous  other  preparations  are,  and  have  been, 
under  full  headway  for  several  days."     The  contract  was  not 


8 


LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 


finally  completed  until  July  28,  1862,  "  for  the  construction  of 
two  iron-clad,  shot-proof  sea  steamers  of  iron  and  wood  com- 
bined, amounting  in  the  aggregate  to  $2,300,000,"  The  noti- 
fication that  the  tender  for  these  had  been  accepted  by  the 
Navy  Department  was  not  received  until  August  8th.  Mean- 
while, that  the  country  might  not  suffer  from  the  delay,  Erics- 
son had  proceeded  with  the  work  at  his  own  risk.* 

The  confidence  Ericsson  had  inspired  at  the  Department, 
among  those  who  were  not  influenced  by  professional  prejudice, 
is  shown  by  a  letter  of  June  9,  1S62,  from  Mr.  Stimers,  who 
said  :  "  You  will  not  be  interfered  with  in  your  arrangements. 
The  Secretary  and  Mr.  Fox  have  the  greatest  confidence  in 
your  skill  and  uprightness,  and  you  see  by  Mr.  Fox's  letter  of 
this  date,  that  your  plans  are  not  criticised.  I  consider  that 
they  take  as  much  responsibility  as  could  be  expected  from 

*  The  formidable  character  of  the  work  Ericsson  had  undertaken  in  making 
himself  responsible  for  these  eight  armor-clads,  is  shown  hy  a  comparison  of 
their  dimensions  with  those  of  the  original  Monitor: 


Contract  price  each 

Extreme  length,  feet 

Extreme  breadth,  feet 

Depth  of  hold,  feet 

Draught  of  water,  feet 

Inside  diameter  of  turret,  feet 

Thickness  of  armor,  inches 

Diameter  of  propellors  (2),  feet 

Diameter  of  steam  cylinders,  inches. . . 

Length  of  stroke,  inches 

Side  armor,  inches 

Weight  of  guns,  pounds \ 

Coal,  in  tons  (2,240  lbs.) , 

Total  displacement,  pounds \ 

Midship  section,  square  feet 


Monitor. 


Passaic, 
I  (6). 


$275,000 
172 
41i 
IH 
10^ 
20 
8 
9 
36 
24 
4^ 
44,000 
100 
2,210,000 
321 


$400,000 

200 

46 

'"ioi' 

21 
lOi 
12 
40 
22 
5 

84,000 

150 

2,990,000 

392 


Dictator  and  Puri- 
tan. 


$1,150,000 
312  and  340 
50 
21f 
20 
24 
15 
21i 
100 
48 
6 
84,000 
220,000 
300  ai^d  1,000 
9,942,000 
11,002,000 
777 


A  portion  of  the  length  of  these  vessels  was  represented  by  the  overhang, 
that  is,  the  part  of  the  deck  extended  over  the  immersed  hull — in  the  case 
of  the  DicUitor  13  feet  forward  and  31  feet  aft,  and  over  the  sides  8  feet  4 
inches,  leaving  the  dimensions  of  the  under  vessel  270  feet  length  and  41  feet 
8  inches  beam. 


FOLLOWING  THE  SUCCESS  OF  THE  MONITOR.  9 

them  when  they  decide  in  favor  of  yonr  plans  in  direct  opposi- 
tion to  the  views  of  the  Bureau  oflBcers."  It  was,  certainly, 
very  exceptional  for  the  civilian  head  of  a  department  to  act  in 
defiance  of  professional  advice.  This  result  was  due  not  alone 
to  the  success  of  the  Monitor,  it  was  the  fruit  of  that  confi- 
dence in  his  integrity,  his  zeal,  and  fidelity,  as  well  as  in  his 
ability,  which  John  Ericsson  always  inspired  in  the  men  who 
knew  him.  lie  was  honest,  and  upright,  and  faithful,  because 
it  was  part  of  his  inborn  nature  to  be  so,  and  no  temptation 
could  make  him  otherwise. 

Though  lionest  men  may  not  always  have  the  discernment 
to  detect  the  rogues,  they  have  an  instinctive  perception  and 
appreciation  of  the  characteristics  of  men  of  their  own  sort. 
This  was  the  secret  of  the  friendship  that  sprang  up  between 
Gustavus  Y.  Fox  and  Ericsson,  and  continued  until  the  death 
of  Mr.  Fox.  Innumerable  letters  exchanged  between  them 
show  how  complete  was  their  confidence  in  each  other. 

It  is  to  the  credit  of  Mr.  "Welles  and  Mr.  Fox  that  they 
were  able  to  step  aside  from  the  path  of  routine  to  make  avail- 
able for  the  public  service  the  genius  of  a  man  like  Ericsson. 
They  estimated  at  its  proper  worth  the  experience  and  ability 
enabling  him  to  conceive  in  all  their  details  the  plans  of  a 
great  fighting  machine  like  the  Dictator,  and  prepare  them  at 
his  drawing-table  with  such  skill  and  accuracy  that,  when  the 
three  thousand  different  parts  that  made  up  the  whole  were 
brought  together  by  the  mechanics,  not  a  single  alteration  in 
any  particular  was  required. 

In  contracting  for  the  Dictator,  the  Department  conferred 
upon  Ericsson  the  extraordinary  privilege  of  constructing  the 
ship  and  her  machinery  after  his  own  plans.  "When  he  had 
undertaken  the  work  under  the  contract,  he  was  repeatedly 
urged  to  introduce  any  improvement  suggesting  itself  to  his 
mind,  so  fertile  in  mechanical  expedients.  The  changes  made 
were  partly  the  result  of  the  experiences  at  sea  and  in  battle, 
which  the  smaller  monitors  were  undergoing  while  the  Dic- 
tator was  building,  and  were  so  numerous  that  the  "  supple- 
mentary specifications "  for  the  vessel  were  nearly  as  long  as 
the  list  of  specifications  under  the  original  contract.  "  A  more 
thorough  development  of  the  new  system,  together  with  the  ex- 


10  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

perience  gained  in  actual  warfare,  since  the  original  contract 
was  entered  into,  has,"  it  was  stated,  "  called  for  the  follow- 
ing additional  work." 

It  was,  of  course,  impossible  to  calculate  in  advance  the 
cost  of  such  improvements,  or  to  make  them  the  subject  of 
exact  specifications  and  contracts ;  so  Ericsson  was  obliged  to 
proceed  under  a  general  promise  from  the  proper  authorities 
that  he  should  be  compensated  for  his  extra  work.  Among 
other  changes,  a  water-tight  inner  skin  was  added  and  a  water- 
tight deck  of  iron  forward — to  prevent  leaks  from  the  concus- 
sion of  ramming — and  a  wooden  deck  between  the  deck  beams 
and  underneath  the  main  deck,  to  keep  out  any  water  working 
through  from  above.  Access  to  the  turret  chamber  was  made 
more  available,  the  sight-holes  improved,  and  a  better  method 
of  inserting  the  bolts  adopted,  as  injury  had  resulted  to  occu- 
pants of  the  turrets  by  boltheads  tlying  off  during  an  engage- 
ment. 

"  In  obedience  to  the  universal  clamor  of  naval  officers,'' 
Ericsson  very  reluctantly  discarded  the  foi"ward  overhang,  de- 
signed for  the  protection  of  the  anchor.  This  hung  in  a  well 
underneath  it  and  could  be  dropped  and  lifted  under  fire  with- 
out injury.  From  this  anchor-well,  as  Lieutenant  Greene,  exe- 
cutive officer  of  the  original  Jfonito?',  complained,  came  a  sound 
resembling  the  death  groans  of  twenty  men,  the  most  dismal, 
awful  sound  ever  heard.  It  was  certainly  not  music  to  the  ears 
of  men  just  going  into  battle,  but  the  explanation  of  it  was 
very  simple.  The  "  hawse-pipe,''  or  aperture  for  paying  out 
the  chain  cable,  was  underneath  the  overhang,  and  so  near  the 
water-line  that  every  time  the  vessel  pitched  forward  the  water 
rushed  into  the  pipe,  driving  the  air  before  it.  and  creating  the 
ghostly  sound  described  by  Lieutenant  Greene.  "Water  also  got 
into  the  vessel  through  the  hawse-pipe,  when,  as  was  some- 
times the  case,  there  was  a  failure  to  stop  up  the  opening 
around  the  chain  cable. 

This  forward  overhang  Ericsson  parted  with  very  unwill- 
ingly, for  it  had  proved  a  perfect  protection  to  the  anchor 
under  severe  and  protracted  fire  from  the  enemy's  batteries ; 
whereas  the  anchor  of  the  Merrimac  was  shot  away  in  her  first 
day's  engagement   with   the   Congress  and  the    Cumherland. 


FOLLOWING   THE   SUCCESS   OF   THE   MONITOR.  11 

Discarding  the  overhang,  compelled  the  adoption  of  some  effi- 
cient mechanism  for  handling  the  anchor.  This  was  devised 
after  much  study,  but  the  problem  was  a  very  difficult  one. 

"When  the  Dictator  went  into  service,  her  commander,  Ad- 
miral John  Itodgers,  one  of  the  naval  officers  who  always 
showed  an  intelligent  interest  in  the  new  style  of  vessel,  wrote 
to  complain  of  the  absence  of  the  forward  overhang.  In  reply 
Ericsson  said,  with  some  bitterness,  that  criticism  had  com- 
pelled him  to  yield  this  feature  of  the  original  Monitor,  as  it 
had  been  vehemently  condemned  by  a  majority  of  the  monitor 
commanders.  In  a  letter  sent  to  the  Secretary  of  the  ISTavy, 
in  replying  to  the  criticisms  of  the  commander  of  one  of 
his  vessels,  he  also  said:  '*!  trust  that  neither  he  nor  the 
other  officers  of  the  turret  vessels,  all  of  whom  are  admitted  to 
be  as  skilful  in  their  profession  as  they  are  brave,  will  take 
offence  at  my  remarks.  I  have  only  the  single  object  in  view 
— the  triumph  of  the  service  which  their  skill  and  valor  have 
raised  so  high  in  public  estimation.  I  beg  earnestly,  however, 
to  call  their  attention  to  the  fact  that  they  have  entered  on  a 
new  era,  and  that  they  are  handling  not  ships,  but  floating 
fighting  machines,  and  that,  however  eminent  their  seamanship, 
they  cannot  afford  to  disregard  the  advice  of  the  engineer." 

The  importance  of  protecting  the  steering  gear  was  shown 
during  the  naval  engagements  of  our  civil  war,  and  has  been 
shown  since  in  the  few  instances  where  ships  have  been  tested 
in  actual  battle.  In  the  engagement  of  July  20, 1866,  between 
the  Italians  and  Austrians  at  Lissa,  nearly  every  one  of  the 
forty  and  more  vessels  engaged  made  one  or  more  attempts  to 
sink  an  adversary  by  ramming.  The  only  vessel  sunk  was  the 
lie  (V Italia,  whose  steering  gear  had  previously  been  injured 
by  gun  fire.  The  only  effective  ramming  in  the  Paraguayan 
war  was  against  a  vessel  already  disabled.  The  Chilian  Es- 
meralda, in  the  battle  of  Iquiqui,  May  21,  1S79,  was  sunk  by 
the  Peruvian  Huascar,  only  because  she  was  unable  to  move. 
From  a  study  of  such  examples  "W.  Laird  Clowes  concludes 
that  "  a  ship,  so  long  as  she  can  keep  way  on  her,  and  so  long 
as  she  can  steer,  need  not  fear  an  enemy's  ram,  provided,  of 
course,  that  she  be  properly  handled.  The  immediate  cause  of 
the  loss  of  the  Indejyendejicia  and  Esmeralda,  the  Be  d* Italia, 


12  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

and  many  other  vessels,  was  the  sudden  disabling  and  tardj  ler 
pairing  of  the  steering  arrangements.* 

Ericsson  opposed  the  Department's  idea  of  two  propelv^ra 
and  two  turrets,  but  he  was  compelled  to  introduce  them  iiito 
one  of  his  two  large  vessels,  the  Purit^in.  The  changes  from 
his  plans  were  the  fruit  of  English  example.  He  wrote  Mr. 
Fox,  August  5,  1863,  saying : 

"With  us  it  is  diflferent.  I  built  upward  of  forty  double-propeller  ves- 
sels for  coast  and  lake  navigation  in  this  country  nearly  twenty  years  ago. 
Not  one  of  the  parties  for  whom  those  vessels  were  built  would  now-  em- 
ploy more  than  one  propeller !  The  advantage  of  being  able  to  turn  the 
vessel  around  on  the  centre  has  charmed  the  naval  men  of  England. 
Now,  this  may  be  done  as  effectually  with  one  screw  in  vessels  hanng  a 
stem  overhang.  "While  you  consider  this  proposition,  you  will  render  the 
country  an  inestimable  service  by  making  up  your  mind  to  render  the 
Puritan  impregnable  by  putting  three-inch  plating  on  her  deck,  ana  dis- 
pense with  the  after-turret.  Mark  my  word,  the  day  is  not  far  distant 
when  two  turrets  on  a  vessel  will  be  admitted  to  have  the  same  advan- 
tages as  two  heads  on  the  human  body,  or  two  suns  in  the  heavens.  There 
are  advantages  in  either  case,  but  the  disadvantages  are  innumerable.  I 
propose  to  resume  this  subject  on  another  occasion,  after  it  shall  have 
been  proved  practically  that  any  amount  of  force  may  be  concentrated  in 
one  gun.  It  is  ships  built  to  meet  the  enemy  on  the  ocean,  or  beyond 
the  ocean,  that  I  contend  should  have  single  turrets.  The  proposition  is 
incontrovertible  that  when  all  the  resources  of  mechanic  art  have  been 
employed  on  either  side,  the  nation  that  puts  a  fleet  of  double-turret 
ships  to  sea  will  do  so  to  be  utterly  annihilated  by  the  nation  that  em- 
ploys the  single-turret  ship  with  its  greater  speed,  greater  impregnabil- 
ity, and  heavier  ordnance.  Some  time  may  possibly  elapse  before  the 
experience  and  advice  of  brave  admirals  in  favor  of  broadsides  will  be 
disregarded,  before  the  fact  will  be  admitted  that  the  single  shot  in 
which  the  entire  weight  and  impact  of  a  whole  broadside  is  concen- 
trated, can  destroy  that  which  a  hundred  broadsides  cannot  harm.  But 
the  time  will  come — truth  is  mighty  and  will  prevail. 

This  reasoning  prevailed  at  that  time,  and  two  years  later,  on 

November  14,  1865,  Ericsson  was  able  to  write  to  John  Bourne, 

in  England  :  "  The  after-turret  of  the  Puritan,  mate  of  the 

Dictator,  but  21^  feet  longer,  will  be  dispensed  with,  and  her 

single  turret  will  have  two  20-incli  guns,  each  weighing  96,000 

pounds,  with  spherical    solid    shot   of    1,000  pounds  weight. 

•  Naval  Warfare,  1860-1889,  and  Some  of  its  Lessons,  in  Journal  of  tha 
Boyal  United  Service  Institution,  1890,  No.  193. 


FOLLOWING  THE  SUCCESS   OF  THE  MONITOR.  13 

This  change  is  quite  a  triumph  for  the  writer,  who  insists  upon 
it  that  a  perfect  fighting  ship  should  only  have  one  turret 
sweeping  the  entire  horizon  with  the  weight  of  the  two  or 
three  turrets,  and  their  guns  concentrated  in  one  turret  and  one 
pair  of  guns.  This  concentration  gives  a  thickness  to  the  tur- 
ret insuring  absohite  impregnabilitj  and  guns  of  such  calibre 
as  to  crush  an  adversary  at  a  single  blow."  This  was  a  correct 
statement  of  the  purpose  of  the  Kavy  Department  at  that 
time,  but  it  was  not  carried  out,  as  the  Puritan  was  never 
completed.  The  armor-clad  vessel  of  that  name  now  in  the 
United  States  Xavy  is  the  same  only  in  name. 

Though  the  intention  in  the  beginning  was  to  allow  Erics- 
son entire  freedom  in  carrying  out  his  plans  with  reference  to 
the  Dictator^  it  would  appear  that  the  pressure  upon  the  civilian 
chiefs  of  the  Xavy  Department  who  had  such  confidence  in  him 
was  too  powerful  to  be  resisted.  Explaining,  in  a  confidential 
letter,  dated  January  7,  1S6S,  why  he  deviated  from  his  orig- 
inal design  by  tapering  off  the  side  armor  plating,  he  said : 

The  whole  blame  rests  with  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  for  allowing 
himself  to  be  humbugged  by  the  Steam  Bureau  Chief,  compeUing  me  to 
put  some  600,000  pounds  additional  and  useless  weight  into  the  vessel 
after  the  plans  had  been  approved  and  the  price  fixed.  But  I  cannot,  on 
personal  and  political  grounds,  at  this  moment  expose  the  gross  blun- 
der of  the  Department.  The  fact  is,  Isherwood,  in  conjunction  with 
others,  was  determined  that  I  should  not  build  the  Dictator  and  Puritan, 
and  therefore,  in  a  very  adroit  manner,  imposed  conditions  which  he 
thought  could  not  be  filled  without  the  vessels  sinking.  On  the  other 
hand,  I  was  determined  to  build  the  vessels,  and  accordingly  accepted 
the  apparently  impossible  conditions  ;  of  course  my  desti-uction  was 
predicted  by  the  opposition.  It  would  be  too  long  a  story  to  tell  how 
I  saved  the  600,000  pounds,  and  what  labor  it  cost.  Suffice  it  to  say 
that  the  tapering  off  the  side  armor  plating  was  one  of  the  expedients 
resorted  to. 

Having  adjusted  his  plans  to  the  new  conditions,  Ericsson 
was  able  to  report  on  July  2,  1S64,  that  the  last  of  the  two 
heavy  iron-clads,  the  Puritan  and  the  Dictator^  had  been  suc- 
cessfully launched  that  morning,  before  9  o'clock.  "  In  proof," 
he  says,  "of  the  accuracy  with  which  my  plans  have  been  car- 
ried out,  and  the  great  exactness  on  the  part  of  all  who  have 


14  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

furnished  iron  for  the  ship,  I  have  to  report  that  the  draught 
of  the  ship  at  the  midship  section,  through  centre  of  forward 
turret,  proved  to  be  11  feet  1  Of  inches,  while  the  launching 
plan  called  for  eleven  feet  eleven  inches — difference  one- 
fourth  inch  less  draught  than  calculated.  As  the  Dictator 
proved  equally  accurate,  it  cannot  be  said  that  our  success  is 
the  result  of  chance.  The  extreme  point  of  stern  overhang  is 
2|-  inches  higher  out  of  water  than  indicated  on  my  plan — an 
advantage  not  owing,  however,  to  inaccuracy,  but  in  accord- 
ance with  my  instructions  to  the  builder,  while  setting  out  the 
work,  to  '  keep  the  after-end  of  the  overhang  well  up.' 

"  I  have  deemed  it  proper  to  advert  to  these  facts  in  refuta- 
tion of  the  prevalent  notion  that  the  draught  of  irou-clads  can- 
not be  accurately  predicted." 

Just  previous  to  launching  the  Dictator,  October  22,  1863, 
Ericsson  addressed  this  gallant  invitation  to  Mrs.  Fox  through 
lier  husband  : 

Can  you  induce  Mrs.  Fox  to  perform  the  ceremony  of  naming  the 
Dictator  at  the  launch?  With  such  a  strong  incentive  as  her  consent  to 
grace  the  occasion  with  her  presence,  we  can  readily  overcome  any  num- 
ber of  impossibilities  that  may  present  themselves  in  deepening  the  river 
and  strengthening  the  dock  between  this  and  November  2d.  Before 
deciding  unfavorably,  I  trust  Mrs.  Fox  will  give  due  weight  to  the  fact 
that  not  only  this  continent  but  all  Europe  take  a  deep  interest  in  the 
proceeding.  Victoria,  Napoleon,  Alexander,  and  even  the  Grand  Turk 
watch  with  anxiety  the  advent  of  the  great  ship,  the  iron  deck  of  which 
may  be  said  to  possess  power  to  crush  the  foundation  on  which  thrones 
are  supported. 

Some  difficulty  was  experienced  in  getting  the  Dictator 
into  the  water,  owing  to  a  disregard  of  the  precautions  consid- 
ered necessary  by  Ericsson.     To  Admiral  Paulding  he  said  : 

The  launching-ways  of  the  ship  were  not  laid  under  my  direction. 
The  builder  of  the  hull  delivers  the  vessel  to  me  at  the  wharf  at  his  own 
risk.  The  inclination  of  the  ways  did  not  meet  my  ajiprobation,  but 
as  the  ship-builder  employed  by  Mr.  Delamater  to  launch  the  vessel, 
insisted  that  it  was  sufficient,  I  could  only  express  my  doubts.  After 
the  completion  of  the  ways  I  had  the  same  accurately  levelled  and  as- 
certained by  calculation  that  the  ship  could  not  move  unless  other  force 
than  gravitation  were  applied.  Accordingly,  I  provided  six  steam  tugs, 
much  to  the  amusement  of  those  whose  "  practical  "  knowledge  entitled 


FOLLOWING  THE  SUCCESS   OF  THE  MONITOK.  15 

them  to  assert  positively  that  the  launch  would  be  successful  without 
applying  steam-power.  The  enormous  force  employed  yesterday  with- 
out success  has  now,  I  am  most  happy  to  inform  you,  convinced  those 
concerned  that  gi-eater  inclination  must  be  given  to  the  ways.  Accord- 
ingly, the  ship  is  now  being  put  on  the  blocks,  the  ways  will  be  rebuilt 
and  the  bulkhead  cut  down  three  feet  in  order  to  obtain  the  required 
inclination. 

It  was  not,  however,  until  December,  1864,  that  the  Dicta- 
tor went  into  commission,  under  command  of  Commodore  John 
Rodgers,  and  was  made  ready  for  sea,  sailing  from  jSTew  l^ork 
on  the  afternoon  of  December  15th,  and  arriving  at  Fort  Mon- 
roe on  the  ITth.  Her  completion  had  been  eagerly  awaited, 
and  as  early  as  March  23,  1S63,  previous,  Mr.  Fox  wrote, 
saying  :  "  Whether  the  Government,  now  using  every  honora- 
ble exertion,  will  succeed  in  stopping  the  sailing  of  the  Con- 
federate iron-clads  from  England  I  know  not,  but  I  beg  of  you 
to  use  every  exertion  to  get  the  Dictator  and  Puritan  ready 
for  sea.     They  will  be  our  main  dependence." 

One  most  important  problem  which  it  fell  to  the  lot  of  the 
]^avy  Department  to  solve  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  was  to 
neutralize  the  aggressive  power  of  the  iron-clads  belonging  to 
foreign  powers,  whose  attitude  of  armed  neutrality  might  at 
any  moment  change  to  one  of  hostility.  By  the  adoption  of 
one  of  two  methods  only  could  this  have  been  accomplished. 
First,  by  copying  the  English  and  French  craft ;  types  of  iron- 
clads so  erroneous  in  principle  that  even  their  great  advocate, 
Scott  Russell,  admitted  that  they  must  have  from  12,000  to 
20,000  tons  displacement  to  attain  impregnability,  with  the 
other  essential  qualities.  To  this  course  these  strong  objections 
presented  themselves;  the  cost  of  the  Warrior,  Bellero2)hon, 
etc.,  was  about  two  million  dollars  in  gold  for  each  vessel,  and 
such  vessels  would  have  cost  the  United  States  at  that  time 
from  five  to  six  millions  each,  or  much  more  than  the  price  of 
the  whole  fleet  of  monitors  of  the  Passaic  class,  and  it  would 
have  taken  at  least  two  or  three  years  to  build  them.  If  ves- 
sels of  this  description  had  been  decided  upon,  it  would  have 
been  almost  impossible,  in  the  first  place,  to  have  had  them 
built,  and  they  would  have  been  valueless  when  done,  as  their 
draught  of  water  would  have  precluded  their  use  for  blockading 


16  LIFE  OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

or  operating  against  the  Confederate  ports  in  any  way.  In 
fact,  if  the  Britons  had  presented  us  with  their  whole  fleet  of 
colossal  iron-clads  they  would  have  been  useless  for  service 
along  our  coast.  They  could  scarcely  approach  within  sight  of 
it  from  Cape  Henry  down,  and  if  kept  in  commission  would 
have  taken  a  whole  army  of  sailors  to  man  them,  to  say  nothing 
of  their  other  expenses.  The  only  thing  which  could  have  been 
done  with  them,  provided  we  had  possessed  a  navy  yard  of  suf- 
ficient depth  of  water,  would  have  been  to  have  placed  them 
"  in  ordinary  "  against  the  contingency  of  a  foreign  war. 

The  second  method  open  to  the  Department  was  to  adopt 
the  system  of  Ericsson,  as  the  only  one  upon  which  iron-clads 
of  small  size,  light  draught  of  water,  impregnability,  and  the 
power  to  use  the  heaviest  ordinance  (as  well  as  quickness  of 
construction)  could  be  built.  These  vessels  could  be  used 
against  the  Confederates,  as  well  as  to  protect  our  large  harbors 
from  foreign  iron-clads,  should  that  emergency  arise. 

The  principle  on  which  the  monitors  were  built  is  one  good 
for  all  time ;  the  character  of  the  particular  vessels  for  which 
Ericsson  was  responsible  is  to  be  judged  by  the  standards  of 
that  day.  From  this  point  of  view  the  Dictator  must  be  re- 
garded a  most  formidable  vessel  ;  superior  as  a  fighting  machine 
to  anything  afloat  at  the  time  she  was  completed.  Though 
Ericsson  was  over-sanguine  as  to  the  speed  she  could  attain, 
even  in  that  respect  she  compared  favorably  with  the  best  of 
the  foreign  armor-clads.  She  was  intended  to  have  a  speed  of 
sixteen  knots,  but  he  was  compelled  to  adopt  a  form  of  boiler 
he  did  not  approve  and  the  upper  tier  of  furnaces  could  not 
be  used  and  she  fell  somewhat  short  of  twelve  knots.  The 
British  'Warrior  had  only  attained  14.4  knots  and  the  Black 
Prince  13.6  on  the  measured  mile  in  smooth  water,  with  boil- 
ers new  and  free  from  scale,  bottom  of  vessel  clean,  using 
picked  coal  and  employing  trained  stokers.  These  conditions 
do  not  prevail  in  ordinary  service,  and  least  of  all  did  they  pre- 
vail during  our  civil  war,  when  everything  had  to  be  impro- 
vised, naval  engineers  and  stokers  included.  Under  like  con- 
ditions the  speed  of  the  Dictator  would  not  have  been  far 
from  that  of  the  best  of  her  transatlantic  rivals.  It  certainly 
equalled  that  of  British  vessels  nearer  her  own  size,  such  as  the 


FOLLOWING  THE   SUCCESS   OF   THE   MONITOR.  17 

Hesistance^  Defence^  and  Royal  Oah,  taking  size  to  mean 
length  and  breadth  and  not  displacement,  her  draught  of  water 
being  but  twenty  feet,  wliile  theirs  was  nearly  twenty-five  feet. 

In  steering  and  handling  qualities,  the  Dictator  was  vast- 
ly superior  to  her  rivals.  Iler  pilot  reported  that  it  took 
but  two  men  at  the  wheel,  and  that  she  was  easier  to  handle 
than  other  vessels  of  half  her  tonnage,  making  turning  in  a  cir- 
cle of  only  700  feet  diameter.  The  English  iron-clad  Achilles, 
with  the  same  engine  power,  required  fourteen  men  at  the 
wheel  with  half  boiler  power  and  twenty-one  men  with  full 
boiler  power,  and  required  a  circle  of  3,000  feet  diameter  in 
which  to  turn,  and  ten  minutes  for  the  operation.  These  are 
important  differences  in  fighting  vessels. 

"  All  our  officers  are  delighted  with  the  Dictator,^''  wrote  one 
of  them  to  Ericsson  on  her  first  trip,  "  as  she  is  without  excep- 
tion the  most  comfortable  and  finest  ship  in  the  United  States 
Navy."  "  The  vessel  steers  beautifully,"  wrote  Commodore 
Rodgers  from  off  Ellis  Island,  on  his  way  out  of  New  York 
harbor  on  the  initial  trip,  November  15, 1863.  "  The  steerage  of 
all  the  monitors  is  peculiar,  and  it  requires  some  little  practice 
to  become  expert,  but  afterward  it  is  extremely  satisfactory. 
I  think  I  can  congratulate  you  already  upon  the  success  of  the 
Dictator.  As  a  whole  she  is  a  grand  triumph,  for  she  gives 
clear  indications  that  when  tested  she  will  be  thoroughly  satis- 
factory." 

The  opportunity  for  the  supreme  test  never  came,  for  the 
war  was  so  far  advanced  before  the  Dictator  entered  the  ser- 
vice that  she  was  never  subjected  to  the  gauge  of  battle.  The 
Puritan  was  incomplete  when  the  war  closed,  and  there  being 
no  immediate  demand  for  her  services,  work  upon  her  was  sus- 
pended for  ten  years,  and  until  the  threat  of  war  with  Spain, 
under  the  administration  of  General  Grant,  led  our  Navy  De- 
partment to  make  active  preparations  for  an  emergency. 

With  reference  to  the  Dictator,  Ericsson  wrote  to  President 
Lincoln,  December  9,  1864: 

This  ship  is  now  attracting  great  attention  on  the  part  of  European 

governments.     Naval  officers  of  all  the   leading   powers  have   closely 

watched  her  construction.     With  regard  to  impregnability  and  power 

of  armament,  all  have  admitted  that  Europe  has  nothing  that  can  cope 

Vol.  II.— 2 


18  LIFE   OF  JOUN  ERICSSON. 

with  the  Dictator  ;  but  her  perfect  "  habitability"  has  not  been  admit* 
ted  until  now  that  the  arrangements  for  promoting  ventilation,  light, 
and  comfort  have  been  completed.  It  must  be  gi-atifying  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Navy  that  the  condition  which  he  has  rigidly  enforced  in 
the  construction  of  the  iron-clads,  to  protect  the  crew  as  well  as  the 
armament,  has  recently  been  accepted  by  the  European  naval  powers  as 
an  indispensable  condition.  You  will  contemplate  with  pride,  sir,  that 
while  your  entire  ii-on-clad  fleet  has,  through  the  sagacity  of  the  Navy 
Department,  been  built  on  a  correct  principle,  England  is  now  engaged 
in  reconstructing  those  costly  but  on\v partialis/  mailed  ships  which  but 
yesterday  she  deemed  perfect  and  invincible. 

Possessing  peculiar  facilities  for  becoming  acquainted  with  the 
views  of  the  naval  authorities  of  Europe,  I  deem  it  my  duty  to  say  that 
the  extraordinary  jirogress  and  success  of  your  navy  during  the  war  is 
fully  appreciated.  The  attention  of  your  maritime  rivals  appears  equal- 
ly directed  to  the  magnitude  of  the  material  resources  developed  and  to 
the  unparalleled  energy  of  your  naval  administration. 

To  the  Secretary  of  State,  Mr,  Seward,  Ericsson  wrote, 
February  5,  18G4,  that  the  Dictator  had  been  examined  by  of- 
ficers sent  for  that  purpose  by  the  Emperor  of  the  French,  who 
were  about  to  return  to  France  with  information  concerning 
our  iron-clad  fleet  not  agreeable  to  the  gentleman  who  was 
seeking  to  strengthen  the  foundations  of  his  throne  by  an  alli- 
ance with  the  House  of  Austria  against  the  peace  of  Mexico 
and  in  defiance  of  the  Monroe  doctrine.  "  These  officers," 
wrote  Ericsson,  "  admit  that  they  came  here  thoroughly  op- 
posed, but  return  converted,  to  the  monitor  system.  They 
do  not  attempt  to  disprove  the  proposition  that  the  broadside 
vessel  with  her  numerous  small  guns  cannot  resist  the  crushing 
effect  of  the  heavy  turret  guns.'' 

In  February,  lS7-i,  ten  years  after  the  Dictator  was  com- 
pleted, Ericsson  wrote  to  a  friend  in  Sweden. 

The  Dictator  is  now  at  Key  West  in  fine  condition.  As  usual,  a  vessel 
has  been  ordered  to  accompany  the  monitor  during  the  voyage  ;  but  in 
a  gale  off  Savannah  this  vessel  made  port  while  the  Dictator,  with  her 
fine  sea-going  qualities  and  plenty  of  coal  in  the  bunkers,  proceeded 
without  her  companion.  This  circumstance  gave  rise  to  rumors  that  the 
Dictator  had  been  lost  after  having,  as  the  stupid  papers  relate,  "  parted 
the  hawser  by  which  she  was  being  towed."  The  Dictator  toired  /  why, 
this  ship  exerts  a  direct  pull  of  fully  80,000  pounds,  and  is  capable  of 
towing  any  ship  of  war  in  existence  at  the  rate  of  seven  miles. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

DISASTROUS  INTERFERENCE  WITH   ERICSSON'S  PLANS. 

Ericsson's  Disinterested  Patriotism. — Pecuniary  Embarrassments  Be- 
sulting  from  it. — Call  for  Light-draught  Monitors. — The  Prompt 
Response. — Unfortunate  Result  of  Interference  with  Ericsson's 
Plans. — Twenty  Millions  Wasted. — His  Efforts  to  Prevent  Disaster. 
— His  Magnanimity. — His  Militaiy  Foresight. — Recommends  a  Re- 
peating Rifle. — A  Plan  for  Flying  Artillery. 

TIST  addition  to  the  six  monitors  of  the  Passaic  class  and  the 
-■-  Dictator  and  Puritan^  built  bj  Ericsson  and  his  associates, 
the  inventor  of  the  Monitor  was  called  upon  to  furnish  plans 
for  four  other  monitor  vessels  building  at  the  same  time. 
These  were  the  Nahant,  Nantucket^  WeehaioJcen,  and  Co- 
onanche,  all  built  on  the  model  of  the  Passaic.  Ericsson's  asso- 
ciates, on  being  informed  that  he  had  agreed  to  furnish  dupli- 
cate plans  to  the  contractors  for  these  vessels,  reminded  him 
that  this  would  bring  him  into  competition  with  others  who 
had  the  great  advantage  of  getting  for  little  or  nothing  what 
liad  cost  them  much  money.  Ilis  reply  was  that  he  felt  in  duty 
bound  to  assist  the  Government  to  the  extent  of  his  power  to 
meet  the  emergency  of  war. 

They  yielded  to  the  argument  of  patriotism  but  the  result 
feared  soon  followed.  Competition  led  to  an  active  demand 
for  labor  and  material,  and  those  who  woi'ked  from  Erics- 
son's matured  plans,  made  castings  from  his  patterns,  and  dupli- 
cated his  wrought-iron  work,  had  every  advantage  over  him. 
Everything  entering  into  the  construction  and  outfit  of  the  ves- 
sels for  which  he  had  contracted  advanced  rapidly  in  price, 
while  the  amount  he  was  to  receive  was  fixed  and  unchangeable. 
The  Government,  in  accordance  with  its  usual  custom,  reserved 
one  quarter  of  his  contract.price  to  secure  the  fulfilment  of  its 
stipulations,  and  at  the  same  time  insisted  that  the   vessels 


20  LIFE   OF   JOIIX   ERICSSON. 

should  be  put  into  service  without  waiting  for  this  final  paj- 
inent.  The  machinery,  just  from  the  workshop,  was  subject  to 
the  severest  of  all  tests,  and  entrusted  to  the  care,  to  a  large 
extent,  of  young  and  inexperienced  engineers,  who,  following 
the  rule  of  poor  workmen  quarrelling  with  their  tools,  were 
ready  to  throw  upon  the  contractors  the  responsibility  for  their 
own  blunders. 

Before  the  work  on  the  six  monitors  was  completed,  Erics- 
son found  himself  embarrassed  for  the  want  of  the  money  re- 
served from  his  contract  price  on  the  vessels,  amounting  alto- 
gether to  $600,000.  On  February  5,  1863,  he  requested  the 
payment  of  the  reservation  upon  the  four  vessels  already  de- 
livered, calling  attention  at  the  same  time  to  the  fact  that  it 
was  wholly  unprecedented  to  expose  the  work  of  contractors  to 
the  chances  of  war  before  paying  for  it  ;  adding,  "the  vessels 
for  which  we  now  solicit  the  full  payment  of  $400,000  each  can- 
not this  day  be  purchased  for  less  than  half  a  million  dollars." 

As  the  war  progressed,  assumed  greater  proportions,  and 
the  Union  armies  penetrated  into  the  interior  of  the  Southern 
territory,  the  navy  occupied  and  patrolled  the  great  rivers  and 
the  numerous  estuaries.  The  class  of  vessels  upon  which  they 
depended  for  protecting  the  army  communications  were  wooden 
boats  of  light  draught,  purchased  from  the  merchant  service. 
Their  machinery,  boilers,  and  magazines  were  above  the  water- 
line,  and  they  were  too  frail  to  carry  anything  but  light  iron  bul- 
warks to  protect  their  crews  against  sharpshooters  hiding  behind 
trees  on  the  river  bank.  The  enemy  found  many  high  points 
upon  their  inland  waters  where  they  could  plant  batteries  of  ar- 
tillery, looking  down  upon  the  gun-boats  and  out  of  reach  of  their 
heavy  guns.  Gallant  attempts  to  attack  such  batteries,  to  pass 
them,  and  to  keep  open  the  army  lines  of  communication,  result- 
ed in  fatal  disasters  and  serious  loss  of  prestige.  From  every 
squadron  and  flotilla  the  Department  was  called  upon  for  a  light- 
draught  iron-clad  vessel,  able  to  resist  the  ordnance  used  bv  the 
Confederates.  The  urgency  of  the  demand,  and  the  painful 
accidents  and  disasters  constantly  occurring,  could  not  be  treated 
with  indifference.  An  invulnerable  vessel  of  light  draught  had 
not  only  never  been  attempted,  but  an  extended  inquiry  gave 
no  encouragement  that  one  could  be  designed. 


INTERFERENCE  WITH  ERICSSON'S  PLANS.  *?! 

In  this  emergency  the  Navy  Department  applied  again  to 
Ericsson.  On  August  4,  1862,  Mr.  Fox  wrote  to  liim  saying: 
"  I  wish  somebody  of  brains  could  give  us  a  six  foot  draught 
boat  of  great  velocity  and  high  pressure  for  the  "Western  waters, 
impregnable  like  your  boats.  We  have  plenty  of  three-inch 
plating,  but  the  rebels  seem  to  beat  us  in  their  Arkansas. 
They  have  also  got  an  iron-clad  nearly  ready  at  Richmond  and 
Savannah  and  two  nearly  ready  at  Charleston,  and  we  are  no- 
where. The  Confederates  are  setting  an  example  of  persever- 
ance and  faith  in  the  iron-clads." 

Casemated  vessels  run  aground  on  the  inland  waters  were 
helpless,  whereas  a  turreted  vessel  discharged  her  guns  toward 
every  point  of  the  compass,  whether  aground  or  afloat.  This  was 
exemplified  when  the  Osage,  a  light-draught  turreted  steamer, 
got  aground  in  the  Red  River  in  April,  1864.  She  was  attacked 
while  in  this  position  by  a  large  force  under  the  Confederate 
General  Greene.  Ills  command  was  cut  to  pieces,  and  he  was 
killed  in  the  attempt  to  capture  a  monitor,  vain  even  when  it 
was  hard  and  fast  aground. 

Of  the  iron-clads  in  the  United  States  service,  none  were 
found  of  any  value  except  the  monitors.  "  I  feel  that  we  should 
have  more  of  your  vessels,"  wrote  Mr.  Fox,  August  5,  1862, 
after  the  Monitor  was  in  service  and  the  ten  vessels  of  the 
Passaic  class,  and  the  Dictator  and  Puritan  were  under  con- 
tract : 


Nothing  that  has  been  presented  approaches  them  in  value.  The 
Galena  and  Iroyisides  are  the  work  of  the  blacksmith;  the  Monitor  a 
piece  of  dehcate,  perfect  mechanism.  Your  associates  have  nearly  five 
millions  worth  of  work,  and  the  public  whom  we  serve  expect  other 
work  to  be  scattered.  For  yourself,  with  your  patriotic  impulses,  the 
establishment  of  your  system  must  be  your  greatest  reward.  People 
incapable  of  making  one  of  your  ships  are  begging,  beseeching,  and  de- 
manding one.  Wo  propose  to  advertise,  say  for  a  class  of  vessels  like 
the  big  monitor,  Quintard's  vessels,  and  the  new  monitors,  to  be  built 
on  the  Atlantic  or  Western  waters.  Will  you  help  us  by  furnishing 
drawings,  etc.,  with  the  present  royalty  for  the  small  ones,  and  say 
810,000  each  for  the  big  vessels  ?  I  am  most  anxious  to  see  monitors 
on  the  Mississippi ;  but  there  we  must  have  double  the  boilers  and 
two  inches  on  the  deck.  You  can  do  this  aud  let  us  drive  the  rebels 
out  of  the  liver.    Shall  we  advertise  and  rely  upon  you  ?    This  seems 


22  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

the  onlv  wav,  since  we  cannot  have  the  entire  use  of  rour  brains, 
exclusivelv.  I  have  thought  over  the  matter  deeply,  and  have  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  vour  boats  onlv  can  give  us  the  Mississippi.  If  we 
sav  double  boiler,  two-inch  deck,  eight-inch  turret,  and  five-inch  side, 
can  you  give  it  to  us  in  ten  feet  draught  ?  If  you  say  yes,  we  will  go 
ahead  at  once,  and  the  credit  belongs  entirely  to  you.  Is  there  any  pos- 
sibility of  night  or  Sunday  work  being  thrown  upon  the  monitors  ? 

To  this  Ericsson  promptlj  responded  the  next  day,  August 
6th  :  '*  If  Tou  can  allow  ten  feet  of  water  draught  it  will  be 
play  to  drive  the  rebels  from  the  Mississippi.  I  have  reference 
to  iron  vessels.  Advertise  as  soon  as  you  deem  proper  for  more 
vessels  and  count  on  my  assistance,  pay  or  no  pay."  "  We  are 
taking  as  much  night  work  out  of  our  men  as  they  can  bear 
during  this  warm  season,"  he  added,  in  answer  to  the  other 
question.  "  Unfortunately  we  cannot  now,  as  formerly,  resort 
to  double  gangs  of  men.  Such  is  the  pressure  produced  by  the 
Government  work  that  we  cannot  fill  up  our  day  gangs,  much 
less  the  double  system."  This  shows  the  difficulties  under 
which  he  was  himself  laboring  while  undertaking  to  farther 
assist  the  Government. 

On  August  Sth,  Fox  replied  :  "  Your  answer  is  a  loyal  one, 
and  such  as  I  counted  upon."  He  added  various  suggestions 
as  to  the  character  of  the  boats  needed,  concluding,  "  I  rely 
upon  your  skill  in  all  this  matter,  and  leave  you  to  turn  over  a 
six-foot  gun-boat  in  vour  mind  for  all  kind  of  shore  and  river 
work."  The  day  this  was  received,  August  0th,  Ericsson  was 
ready  with  his  reply :  "  By  Monday's  mail  [this  was  written 
Saturday]  I  will  send  you  a  general  plan  of  a  swift  and  pow- 
erful monitor  ram  for  the  Mississippi,  of  ten  feet  draught. 
Also  a  general  specification  that  will  enable  you  to  advertise. 
"While  I  am  no  advocate  of  surface  condensation  for  fighting 
vessels  rinming  in  salt  water,  I  deem  the  distilling  process  in- 
dispensable for  vessels  navigating  muddy  rivers.  I  have  long 
contended  that  the  Mississippi  will  never  be  navigated  safely 
and  economically  until  surface  condensation  is  resorted  to." 

"Was  it  strange  that  the  2Savy  Department  should  be  dis- 
]>osed  to  repose  entire  confidence  in  a  man  of  such  ability  and 
experience,  and  who  could  act  with  such  promptness  ?  The 
specifications  for  the  boats  required  were  indeed  ready  before 


INTERFERENCE  WITH   ERICSSON' S   PLANS.  23 

Ericsson's  last  letter  was  written,  for  tliej  were  dated  October 
8th,  and  were  doubtless  held  a  daj  or  two  for  more  careful  con- 
sideration and  the  completion  of  the  necessary  calculations.  The 
specifications  provided  for  vessels  of  only  six  feet  draught,  221 
by  41  feet  over  all,  with  a  flat-bottom  iron  hull  168  by "si 'feet, 
encased  in  solid  timber,  shaped  to  the  outlines  of  an  ordinary 
vessel,  with  easy  lines  and  extending  20  feet  beyond  the  hull 
forward,  and  32  feet  aft.  They  were  to  carry  three  inches  of 
armor,  and  were  to  have  two  propellers,  with  an  engine  for 
each,  but  with  the  shafts  so  coupled  as  to  work  together. 
The  turret,  pilot-house,  etc.,  were  to  follow  the  model  of  the 
Passaic.  These  specifications  %vere  sent  without  charge  or 
stipulation  as  to  remuneration.  How  many  men  are  there  who 
can^  furnish  detailed  specifications  suflicient  to  constitute  the 
basis  of  a  contract  of  a  fleet  of  gun-boats  on  a  novel  plan  at 
twenty -four  hours'  notice  ? 

The  story  of  the  "light-draught  monitors,"  as   they   are 
called,  is  one  of  the  most  disgraceful  chapters  in  the  history  of 
our  naval  administration.     Twenty  of  them  were  built  at  a  cost 
to  the  nation  of  $14,000,000.     Had  Ericsson's  ideas  concerning 
them  been  carried  out,  they  would  have  swarmed  up  every 
Southern  river  and  into  every  inlet  and  sound  where  six  feet 
of  water  could  be  found,  and  would  have  exerted  a  most  im- 
portant influence  upon  the  fortunes  of  the  war.     As  it  was,  the 
money  spent  upon  them  was  worse  than  wasted,  for  it  led  the 
Navy  Department  to  trust  to  a  scheme  which  proved  abortive. 
Through  mistakes  and  miscalculations  by  the  Government  of- 
ficials in  carrying  out  Ericsson's  suggestions,  the  vessels  were 
built  with  so  little  floative  power  that  they  could  not  be  used 
for  the  purpose  intended.     As  an  attempt  was  made  at  the 
time  to  fix  the  responsibility  for  this  enormous  blunder  upon 
Ericsson,  it  is  due  to  his  memory  that  the  facts  should  be  pre- 
sented here. 

We  have  already  seen  how  promptly  Ericsson  responded  to 
the  request  coming  from  the  Navy  Department,  that  he  should 
furnish  designs  for  the  light-draught  vessels  it  had  determined 

^^oo.^'     '^^"'  '^''''  ''''''^^  '"  August,  1862.     On  February  21 
1863,  Mr.  Fox  wrote,  saying :  ' 

"  The  bids  for  the  light-draughts  are  to  be  opened  the  24tU 


24  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

inst.     "Wlien  I  suggested  these  boats  to  you,  I  did  not  expect 

that  jou  would  be  able  to  give  time  for  the  details,  but  I  pre- 
sumed you  were  to  furnish  the  plans,  leaving  Stimers  to  work 
out  your  ideas.  Before  we  contract  I  ought  to  know  that  this 
is  so.  From  the  beginning  I  have  advocated  the  product  of 
your  brain  and  staked  the  reputation  of  the  Xavy  on  the  re- 
sult. Before  launching  off  into  the  construction  of  these  light- 
draughts  you  will  tell  me  if  they  are  all  right,  as  we  take  them 
presuming  them  to  be  yours." 

Ericsson  at  once  telegraphed  to  Secretary  Welles,  February 
2-i,  1863,  "  I  have  before  me  general  plan  of  light-draught  moni- 
tors. Permit  me  to  say  that  the  leading  principle  has  been 
frittered  away  by  changes."  In  this  telegram  he  indicated 
some  of  the  mistaken  changes,  and  in  a  letter  dated  the  same 
day  he  described  these  more  in  detail,  and  presented  his  rea- 
sons for  objecting  to  the  several  alterations  from  his  plan 
most  clearly  and  forcibly.  "  I  have  not  time,"  he  concluded, 
"  to  enter  further  into  detail,  and  much  regret  that  I  have 
only  had  a  few  hours  to  investigate  a  subject  of  great  national 
importance.  It  will  be  well  for  Mr.  Stimers  to  explain  why 
he  has  not  submitted  to  me  his  plans.  Finding  that  this  gen- 
tleman avoided  to  lay  his  drawings  before  me,  and  confined 
himself  to  some  half-dozen  questions  during  the  whole  period 
of  preparing  the  plans,  I  arrived  at  the  irresistible  conclusion 
that  he  acted  under  instructions.  This  supposition  I  thought 
fully  confirmed  on  learning  that  he  had  sent  the  final  plan  for 
the  bidders  to  Washington,  without  affording  me  a  chance  of 
even  looking  at  it.  It  was  this  persistent  withholding  of  the 
plans  from  my  sight  which  has  forced  me  to  adopt  a  course 
of  extreme  delicacy  in  relation  to  Mr.  Stimers.  These  circum- 
Btances  will  explain  the  anomalous  fact  that  I  have  not  until 
this  day  seen  the  plan  of  the  light-draught  monitors  which 
you  have  put  into  the  hands  of  your  contractors." 

Burdened  and  harassed  as  he  was,  Ericsson  resolved  to 
leave  nothing  undone  to  save  the  Government  from  the  dis- 
aster he  saw  impending,  and  which  might  still  be  averted,  for 
the  vessels  were  not  yet  under  contract.  Accordingly,  on  March 
3,  1863,  he  telegraphed  to  the  Secretary:  "In  connection  with 
my  associates  in  the  Dictatoi'  and  Puritan  contract,  I  offer  to 


INTEKFERENCE   WITH   ERICSSON' S   PLANS.  25 

build  six  light-draught  gunboats,  according  to  plans  and  speci- 
fications now  in  your  possession,  dated  October  8th  of  last 
year,  for  three  hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  dollars,  each 
vessel.  To  be  completed  in  four  months,  and  to  be  two  feet 
longer  and  two  feet  wider  than  stipulated  in  said  specifications. 
Please  state  by  telegram  if  you  accept  this  offer.  If  you  can- 
not do  so,  we  respectfully  withdraw  our  offer." 

He  proposed  to  deal  directly  with  the  Secretary  or  not  at 
all.  No  time  was  to  be  lost,  and  he  could  not  afford  to  sub- 
mit to  the  usual  experience  of  having  his  plans  pottered  over  for 
weeks  or  months  by  Naval  Bureaux,  and  then  returned  to  him 
mangled  out  of  shape  and  comeliness.  This  offer  was  not  ac- 
cepted, and  I  find  no  evidence  that  it  was  considered  or  an- 
swered. Nor  was  his  urgent  advice  as  to  the  character  of  the 
light-drauo-hts  heeded. 

After  waiting  six  weeks  longer,  on  April  10th  he  wrote 
again  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  saying :  "  Will  you  forgive 
me  if  I  now,  in  a  kindly  spirit,  point  to  a  remarkable  inconsis- 
tency on  your  part  ?  You  say  you  cannot  confidently  permit 
3'our  contractors  to  put  in  the  vacuum  engines  unless  the  work 
is  done  under  my  direction,  and  yet  you  are  building  a  whole 
fleet  of  light-draught  monitors,  not  only  without  my  aid,  but  in 
opposition  to  my  emphatic  remonstrance.  I  tell  you  that  your 
22-incli  cylinders  are  utterly  incompetent  to  propel  your  boats, 
that  your  boilers  prevent  you  from  bracing  the  hulls,  and  that 
they  will  roast  your  engineers  ;  and  I  predict  that  your  vessels 
will  break  in  two  in  a  seaway  for  want  of  longitudinal  strength  ; 
yet  you  have  sufficient  confidence  in  your  contractors'  assertion 
that  they  can  make  your  vessels  successful,  while  you  cannot 
trust  them  to  build  the  vacuum  engines  unless  directed  by  the 
person  whose  judgment  you  practically  ignore." 

These  protests  against  the  completion  of  the  light-draught 
monitors  on  a  defective  plan  were  unheeded.  Doubtless  they 
went  through  the  usual  routine  of  endorsement  and  transmittal 
from  bureau  to  bureau,  without  reaching  anyone  who  was  suf- 
ficiently well  informed  to  be  impressed  with  their  importance. 
Two  influences  were  constant  forces  operating  against  Erics- 
son :  one  was  the  ignorant  conceit  of  office ;  the  other  the  po- 
litical necessity  of  gratifying  the  incessant  clamor  for  a  distri- 


26  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

bution  of  contracts  over  as  wide  a  voting  area  as  possible.  As 
Ericsson,  in  his  anxiety  to  have  the  work  well  done,  had  offered 
to  build  the  boats  himself,  no  doubt  his  criticisms  were,  accord- 
ing to  the  usual  standard  of  interpretation,  held  to  indicate  a 
desire  to  secure  a  monopoly  of  the  work  for  his  associates  and 
himself. 

Whatever  the  reason,  his  letters  and  his  telegrams  to  the 
Department  were  without  effect.  Contracts  for  twenty  little 
monitors  were  prepai'ed  and  distributed  impartially  over  the 
country.  Six  went  to  Boston  ;  three  to  Greenpoint,  where  was 
built  the  original  Monitor,  but  to  a  different  yard  ;  two  to  Cin- 
cinnati, and  two  to  St.  Louis  ;  Chester,  Pa.,  Philadelphia,  Pitts- 
burg, Baltimore,  and  Camden,  X.  J.,  and  Portland,  Me.,  each 
had  one.  Thus  the  demand  for  the  distribution  of  Government 
work  to  various  sections  was  in  a  measure  satisfied.  The  con- 
tracts were  made  generally  in  the  spring  of  1863,  the  last  in 
June,  and  the  vessels  were  to  have  been  finished  in  the  fall  of 
that  year.  They  were  delayed,  and  as  they  approached  com- 
pletion in  the  following  spring,  Ericsson  could  no  longer  remain 
easy.  Most  emphatically  he  wrote  to  the  Navy  Department, 
and  to  Pear- Admiral  Gregory,  who  had  always  shown  the 
most  friendly  disposition  toward  him,  and  who  M-as  in  com- 
mand of  the  Brooklyn  Navy  Yard.  There  was  now  a  pros- 
pect that  the  various  evils  he  had  predicted  might  be  escaped  ; 
if  in  no  other  way,  at  least  by  the  inability  of  the  vessels  to 
carry  the  weight  to  be  put  upon  them,  and  that  the  outraged 
ocean  would  swallow  up  these  bastard  productions  before  they 
left  their  wharves. 

"As  Mr.  Stimers  is  prosecuting  the  completion  of  his 
vessel,"  wrote  Ericsson  to  the  Admiral,  May  IG,  1864,  "the 
Kavy  Department  will  very  shortly  be  exposed  to  the  deep 
disgrace  before  the  country  of  one  of  its  ironclads  sinking  at 
the  wharf — a  whole  fleet  of  similar  vessels  being  nearly  ready  ! 
Stimers  must  be  crazy  not  to  see  that  his  vessel  will  be  under 
water  at  the  stern  even  before  stores  are  put  on  board.  A 
person  who  applies  a  boiler  weighing  140,000  pounds  to  operate 
two  22-iiich  cylinders,  while  boilQrs  of  less  than  y^«//that  weight 
give  sufficient  steam  to  supply  a  pair  of  4S-inch  cylinders — wit- 
ness many  of  our  swift  propeller  vessels — I  say,  a  person  who 


INTERFEKENCE   WITH   EEICSSOK'S   PLANS.  27 

knows  so  little  of  his  profession  may  be  expected  to  blunder, 
but  not  to  be  actually  blind,  as  appears  to  be  the  case  with 
your  Inspector." 

Finding  that  the  contractors  for  these  vessels  were  being  in- 
formed that  he  had  been  consulted  in  preparing  the  working 
plans,  and  determined  that  the  Navy  Department  should  not 
be  again  deceived,  on  March  30,  186dt,  Ericsson  wrote  to  Sec- 
retary "Welles,  calling  his  attention  to  the  letter  of  February 
24,  1863,  quoted  above,  and  saying  : 

I  have  now  respectfully  to  add,  that  I  have  not  been  consulted 
since,  and  that  I  had  no  precise  knowledge  of  the  nature  of  the  mecha- 
nism and  internal  arrangement  until  about  two  weeks  ago,  when  I  ob- 
tained a  copy  of  the  engraved  general  plan  which  has  been  distributed 
among  the  contractors.  I  add  with  deep  regret,  that  the  inspection  of 
that  engraving  forced  the  conviction  on  my  mind  that  these  vessels  can- 
not succeed.  The  extraordinary  complication  of  machinery  and  want  of 
proportion  of  the  structure  in  every  part,  is,  I  am  compelled  to  say,  a 
reproach  to  the  prof ession.  The  liberality  of  the  Department  had  placed 
at  the  service  of  Mr.  Stimers  an  efficient  staff,  far  more  numerous  than 
any  I  have  ever  known  in  similar  undertakings.  The  working  plans 
emanating  from  the  Inspector's  office  have  been  executed  in  a  style  of 
finish  I  believe  never  equalled.  Displacement  and  weight  of  parts  have 
been  calculated  and  recalculated  at  the  Inspector's  office,  but  alas,  the 
vessels  cannot  carry  the  complex  and  cumbrous  machinery  put  in,  and 
if  they  could  the  motive  power  is  insufficient  to  produce  a  speed  suffi- 
cient for  any  practical  purpose  whatever.  Had  I  not,  in  my  letter  of 
February  21,  1863,  so  emphatically  expressed  my  disapprobation  of  the 
plan  adopted,  I  should  have  felt  it  my  duty  ere  this  to  have  addressed 
the  Department.  It  would  ill  become  me  to  complain  because  my  ad- 
vice was  disregarded,  but  I  am  forced  to  resist  the  attempt  of  the  In- 
spector to  fasten  the  responsibility  on  my  shoulders  for  work  executed 
from  plans  which  I  have  not  approved  of  and  never  seen. 

It  was  speedily  discovered  that  Ericsson  was  right.  The 
Chimo^  built  at  Boston  under  the  immediate  direction  of  Mr. 
Stimers  himself,  was  finished.  Instead  of  being  out  of  water 
fifteen  inches  amidships,  as  was  intended,  she  was  only  three 
inches  above  the  water-line  on  an  average — a  miscalculation  of 
twelve  inches.  This  would  not  have  been  so  serious  in  a  ves- 
sel of  the  old  style  with  high  free-board,  but  in  a  monitor  it 
was  fatal.  The  Department  immediately  removed  Mr.  Stimers 
from  the  position  of  general  superintendent,  and  placed  the 


28  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

question  as  to  what  should  be  done  to  remedy  the  difficulty  oc- 
casioned by  his  error  in  the  hands  of  Rear- Admiral  Gregory 
and  Chief-Engineer  Wood,  of  the  Navy.  On  hearing  of  their 
appointment,  Captain  Ericsson  wrote,  "  I  will  cheerfully  give 
Admiral  Gregory  any  assistance  he  may  desire  in  relation  to 
the  light-draught  vessels.  The  handsome  manner  in  which  the 
Department  has  been  pleased  to  recognize  my  services  is  a 
powerful  incentive  to  renewed  exertions  in  the  great  cause.'' 

As  conflicting  instructions  came  from  the  Secretary  of  the 
Xavy  and  his  assistant,  Mr.  Fox,  Ericsson  wrote  to  Admiral 
Gregory  :  "  I  feel  greatly  honored  by  the  confidence  which  the 
Secretary  appears  to  place  in  my  judgment,  but  1  should  not 
venture  to  give  any  directions  excepting  in  accordance  with 
positive  instructions.  Should  the  Department  order  you  to 
lighten  certain  vessels,  1  will  point  out  to  Mr.  "Wood  what  1 
deem  the  best  mode  of  doing  it."  Finally,  the  most  complete 
authority  was  given  to  Ericsson  to  follow  his  own  judgment 
in  the  matter,  and  Secretary  "Welles  wrote,  June  20,  1864: 
"The  Department  is  not  inclined  to  fix  any  conditions  in 
regard  to  the  alterations,  but  rather  to  leave  the  matter  to  your 
skill  and  experience.  Economy  of  money  and  time  are  im- 
portant elements  of  which  you  will  probably  feel  the  impor- 
tance." 

Admiral  Dahlgren,  who  was  in  command  of  the  South  At- 
lantic station,  and  Acting  Rear-Admiral  S.  P.  Lee,  command- 
ing Xorth  Atlantic  squadron,  had  asked  that  several  monitors 
should  be  fitted  out  with  torpedo  arrangements  and  without 
turrets.  It  was  accordinglv  decided  that  the  five  light-drane-hts 
most  advanced  toward  completion  should  be  fitted  for  this  ser- 
vice, and  that  the  sides  of  the  others  should  be  built  up  fifteen 
inches  higher,  as  the  roof  of  a  house  is  raised  when  an  addi- 
tional half-story  is  added  to  it.  Of  course  this  would  not  bring 
them  within  the  original  requirements,  but  M-ith  eight  feet 
draught  they  would  have  more  capacity.  The  cost  was  in- 
creased about  in  proportion  to  this  increase  of  space.  Mean- 
while, Ericsson  most  emphatically  advised  Admiral  Gregory  not 
to  permit  the  vessels  to  leave  the  dock,  as  they  would  instantly 
sink  if  exposed  to  any  \mdulating  motion.  The  water-line  be- 
ing already  six  inches  above  the  iron  hull,  there  was  a  stream  of 


INTERFERENCE   WITH   ERICSSON'S   PLANS.  29 

water  pouring  continuously  into  the  vessel,  and  constant  pump- 
ing was  required  to  keep  it  down. 

Mr.  Stiniers  proposed  to  remove  the  overhang.  As  Ericsson 
had  always  insisted  with  such  tenacity  upon  retaining  this,  the 
proposition  excited  his  indignation  and  he  wrote  most  emphat- 
ically to  Admiral  Gregory,  calling  attention  to  the  fact  that 
this  would  only  put  the  vessel  one  inch  more  out  of  the  water, 
and  that  the  change  would  subject  the  rudders  and  the  propel- 
lers, which  were  three  feet  out  of  water,  to  destruction  by  a 
twelve-pound  shot,  even  at  long  range.  ''  Would  such  a  vessel," 
he  pertinently  asked,  "  be  fit  to  explore  rivers  lined  with  rebel 
batteries  ?  *'  "  Pray,  pardon  my  candor,"  he  concluded,  "  but  I 
can  no  longer  remain  silent  on  a  subject  that  involves  the  inter- 
ests of  the  nation  and  the  reputation  of  the  naval  service." 

With  one-half  her  complement  of  coal  on  board,  the  Tunxis, 
another  of  these  vessels,  was  only  one  and  one-half  inch  out 
of  water  amidships,  and  the  matter  of  discharging  torpedoes 
from  the  deck  of  the  vessel  suggested  grave  difficulties.  Xor 
was  this  the  worst.  On  July  25th  Ericsson  wrote  to  Mr. 
Fox  :  '•  The  mischief  grows  in  magnitude  with  every  day  I  re- 
flect on  the  consequences.  The  mere  raising  the  vessels  is  not 
what  troubles  me,  but  the  fear  that  when  done  they  will  not 
possess  the  needed  longitudinal  strength  actually  deprives  me 
of  sleep  at  night.  I  hardly  dare  hope  that  in  a  heavy  sea  the 
structure  will  stand.  I  said  to  you  in  one  of  my  letters  that 
these  vessels  will  '  break  in  two  in  a  sea-way.'  The  only  thing 
that  has  improved  our  chances  since  is  that  we  now  deepen  the 
vessers  sides  twenty-two  inches,  and  I  hope  that  will  save  us." 

His  letters  not  unnaturally  contained  some  strong  expressions 
concerning  Stimers's  capacity.  "  I  forgot  at  the  moment  of 
writing  you  yesterday,"  he  said  to  Mr.  Fox,  July  25,  1S64, 
"  that  the  man  I  stigmatized  as  a  charlatan  engineer  is  one  of 
your  subordinates,  and  that,  therefore,  you  are  his  official  pro- 
tector. Xothing  but  excitement  could  make  a  military  man 
for  a  moment  forget  so  important  a  fact." 

Surely  it  was  an  excitement  over  which  even  the  angels 
might  weep  in  sympathy,  for,  as  Ericsson  said  in  another  letter: 
*'  That  every  blunder  of  Stimers  falls  upon  me  is  of  small  ac- 
count.    It  is  our  great  cause  which  I  have  intently  at  heart 


so  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

which  forces  me  to  speak  candidly  to  one  who  Aa^  it  in  his 
jyoicer  to  correct  all." 

The  demand  for  the  vessels,  thus  unfortunately  misbuilt,  was 
imperative,  and  on  July  2S,  1S64,  Mr.  Fox  wrote  inquiring 
whether  "  the  ingenuitv  and  genius  which  have  created  the 
monitors  could  not  remedy  the  blunders  which  are  now 
known."  The  call  became  more  and  more  urgent,  and  it  was 
suggested  that  one  of  them,  the  Tiuixis^  might  possibly  be  put 
in  shape  to  do  duty  in  the  sounds  of  2sorth  Carolina. 

Said  Mr.  Fox  : 

A  short  history  of  the  light-dranglit  monitors  is  this  :  You  furnished 
the  oiigiaal  idea  and  sent  it  to  the  Department.  Admiral  Smith  pro- 
posed the  hollow  chamber,  and  other  suggestions  were  made,  princi- 
pally bv  Stimers  ;  and  as  vour  hands  and  head  were  full,  it  was 
agreed  to  let  Stimers  prepare  detailed  plans,  consulting  with  vou  so  as 
not  to  get  off  the  track.  It  was  not  known  that  Stimers  was  going 
oflf  on  his  own  responsibiUtr,  and  through  lack  of  information  and  his 
gross  blunders,  the  Department  has  suffered  in  reputation,  and  the 
country  has  lost  the  services  of  these  vessels.  The  Department  will 
probably  order  Stimers  on  duty  away  from  New  York,  and  as  a  commit- 
tee are  to  investigate  the  subject  I  would  avoid  a  public  controversy. 
The  want  of  a  light-draught  iron-clad  has  been  so  imperative  that  the  De- 
partment was  justified  in  taking-  great  risks  to  obtain  one.  The  ques- 
tion now  is  not  who  is  to  blame,  nor  is  it  desirable  to  cuss  or  discuss. 
The  only  question  is,  what  shall  be  done  ?  It  is  an  engineer's  question 
alone,  and  I  rely  confidently  upon  you  to  solve  it." 

TheTwnx2.*,wasfinally  put  into  shape  to  go  into  commission 
under  Captain  Henry  Erben,  U.  S.  2s  avy,  and  Mr.  Stimers  was 
ordered  to  her  as  engineer  officer.  "When  he  reported  on  board 
lie  was  confronted  by  an  inscription  on  a  plate  set  into  the  ves- 
sel, which  declared  that  she  was  built  by  Reaney  Son  tfe  Archi- 
bald, Chester,  Pa.,  '•  from  designs  prepared  by  Alban  C, 
Stimers,  Chief  Engineer  of  the  United  States  Xavy."  Mr. 
Stimers  was  evidently  not  proud  of  this  record,  for  he  was  dis- 
covered at  work  one  day  with  a  cold  chisel  cutting  his  name 
out  of  the  plate.  Had  the  vessel  succeeded  it  would  have 
stood. 

Chief-Engineer  Stimers  had  been  associated  with  Ericsson 
in  the  construction  of  the  original  Monitor^  and  took  passage 
in  that  vessel  to  Hampton  Eoads  as  a  volunteer,  at  a  time 


INTERFERENCE  WITH  ERICSSON'S   PLANS.  31 

when  many  of  our  engineers  and  constructors  predicted  that 
she  would  never  be  heard  of  again.  It  was  owing  to  his  zeal 
and  skill,  and  his  faith  in  Ericsson's  conception,  that  all  the 
engines  of  that  vessel  performed  their  functions  during  that 
memorable  contest  with  the  Merrimac,  and  from  that  field  he 
was  transferred  to  Xew  York  as  general  superintendent  of  iron- 
clads under  construction.  He  had  proved  a  most  useful  assist- 
ant, so  long  as  he  permitted  himself  to  be  guided  by  the  in- 
struction of  the  man  who  was  so  unquestionably  his  master  in 
the  art  of  naval  construction.  Ericsson  had  a  well-defined  and 
complete  plan,  and  from  this  he  was  not  to  be  moved  by  ad- 
verse criticism  or  well-meant  advice.  He  could  stand  the 
united  assaults  of  bureau  disbelief  and  nautical  complaint ; 
Stimers  could  not,  and  he  fell  a  victim  to  his  zeal  to  improve 
upon  Ericsson  by  piecing  out  what  in  his  wisdom  he  regarded 
as  an  imperfect  scheme,  with  the  shreds  and  patches  of  nauti- 
cal lore,  such  as  the  elder  and  the  better  constructor  had  re- 
jected as  inapplicable  to  his  revolutionary  design. 

Though  forced  to  condemn  his  work,  Ericsson  had  no  hostil- 
ity to  the  man.  He  fully  recognized  the  service  he  had  done, 
and  when  Stimers  died  he  exerted  himself  to  procure  from 
Congress  for  the  benefit  of  his  family  the  pension  to  which  he 
believed  him  entitled.  He  educated  his  daughter,  and  most 
liberally  responded  to  the  call  upon  his  good-will  resulting  from 
Mr.  Stimers's  early  death.  His  letters  to  the  Department  were 
emphatic,  as  it  was  necessary  they  should  be,  but  he  refrained 
from  public  condemnation  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  his  friends 
urged  that  public  exposure  was  necessary  to  his  own  vindica- 
tion, and  the  circumstances  were  such  as  to  provoke  speech. 

In  a  private  letter  to  Mr.  Fox,  December  31,  1S64,  explain- 
ing the  testimony  he  was  called  upon  to  give  before  a  commit- 
tee of  Congress  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  matter,  he  said  : 

Senator  Wade  and  Mr.  Odell  called  nx)on  me  last  Tuesday,  requesting 
me  to  give  testimony  with  reference  to  the  light-draught  monitors. 
Accordingly,  I  met  those  gentlemen  the  following  day  at  Astor  House, 
and  made  a  very  full  statement  on  all  points  which  I  deemed  important. 
As  I  rendered  only  volunteer  sei-vice  without  compensation,  with  no  au- 
thority but  an  unofficial  verbal  request  £rom  the  Assistant  Secretary  of 
the  Navy — the  receipt  of  my  plans  not  even  having  been  acknowledged 


32  LIFE   OF   JOUN   ERICSSON. 

by  the  Department — I  confined  the  testimony  to  what  took  place  be 
tween  myself  and  Mr.  Stimers.  The  important  deviations  from  my 
plan,  introduced  by  him,  were  minutely  pointed  out  and  condemned  ; 
but  full  credit  was  given  him  on  account  of  the  fact  that  Mr.  Isherwood 
had  reduced  the  size  of  the  steam  cylinders  and  changed  the  form 
of  boilers,  full  weight  also  being  given  to  the  circumstance  that  the 
water- box  arrangement  was  deemed  a  great  improvement  and  highly 
ajjproved  of  by  some  of  the  ablest  officers  in  the  Navy.  I  also  had  occa- 
sion more  than  once  to  advert  to  the  fact  that  the  Department  was  led 
to  believe  that  Mr.  Stimers  consulted  with  me  and  acted  under  my  ad- 
vice. 

With  his  offer  to  build  the  vessels,  Ericsson  did  send  a 
working  plan,  constructed  after  a  careful  estimate  of  weights 
and  displacements,  and  intended  as  a  basis  for  the  proposed 
contract.  To  this  working  plan  no  attention  appears  to  have 
been  paid. 

Here  are  the  facts,  and  certainly  no  chapter  in  the  history 
of  John  Ericsson  presents  him  in  a  better  light.  He  might  well 
have  refused  to  take  any  part  in  helping  the  Government  out 
of  the  serious  diflBculty  into  which  it  had  been  led  by  following 
other  advice  than  his.  He  was  heavily  overweighted  already, 
and  a  lesser  man  would  have  been  occupied  rather  with  the 
thought  of  his  own  triumph  over  those  who  had  deliberately 
sought  to  deprive  him  of  the  honor  due  him,  and  to  transfer 
his  laurels  to  their  own  brows.  But  Ericsson  had  but  one 
desire,  and  that  was  for  the  triumph  of  the  cause  with  which 
his  sympathies  were  enlisted  ;  but  one  purpose — to  assist  to 
the  utmost  of  his  ability  in  extricating  the  Government  from  a 
ditJicult  situation.  So  careful  was  he  not  to  weigh  his  own 
reputation  in  the  scale  against  it,  that  in  a  letter  written  to 
the  press  at  the  time,  in  response  to  current  criticisms  upon 
the  monitors,  his  only  allusion  to  the  light-draughts  was  in 
this  sentence :  "The  twenty  light-draught  turret  vessels"  [he 
would  not  call  them  monitors]  "  now  in  course  of  construction 
may  cost,  with  improvements  and  alterations  under  the  present 
enhanced  price  of  labor  and  material,  $500,000  apiece." 

"  You  certainly  must  have  had  very  good  reason,''''  wrote  an 
anxious  friend  concerning  this  letter,  "  to  speak  of  the  light- 
draughts  otherwise  than  to  condemn  and  deny  any  connection 
with  their   construction.     AVhy,  an  editorial  has  already  ap-, 


INTERFERENCE   WITH   ERICSSON'S   PLANS.  33 

peared  in  tlie  Tribune  assuming  that  you  are  their  fatlier! 
Sooner  or  later,  the  trutli  in  relation  to  these  monuments  of 
stupidity  must  be  given  to  the  public.  It  may  not  be  advisable 
for  you  to  give  any  explanation  at  present,  but  you  cannot  carry 
the  odium  of  publicly  mentioning  them  without,  at  the  same 
time,  repudiating  any  connection  with  them." 

No  one  understood  the  real  facts  better  than  the  author  of 
this  letter,  but  he  did  not  know  how  strong  was  the  obligation 
upon  Ericsson  to  refrain  from  complaint,  not  only  to  save  the 
Government  from  criticism,  but  to  spare  Stimers,  ev^en  at  his 
own  expense.  He  felt  with  Mr.  Fox,  who  wrote :  "  I  cannot 
be  hard  upon  Stimers,  who  helped  us  in  the  first  Monitor  with 
so  much  zeal  and  courage.  lie  has,  however,  given  us  a  great 
set-back  to  what  would  otherwise  have  been  success  in  every- 
thing." 

How  complete  this  disaster  was  is  shown  by  this  extract 
from  the  testimony  given  before  the  Xaval  Committee  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  by  one  of  Mr.  Stiraers's  own  corps, 
Alexander  Henderson,  Chief  Engineer,  TJ.S.N. 

Question.  Were  those  vessels  known  as  "  the  light-draught  monitors'* 
ever  used  at  all  ? 

Answer.  Some  of  them,  I  believe,  attempted  an  existence,  but  it  was 
a  very  brief  one. 

Ques.  Were  they  not  all  failures,  so  that  they  could  not  carry  their 
guns? 

Ans.  Totally  and  entirely,  without  an  exception,  so  far  as  I  know. 

Ques.  Were  any  of  them  of  any  value  as  naval  ships  in  the  navy  ? 

Ans.  Not  of  the  slightest ;  and  hardly  valuable  as  old  material.  It 
would  cost  more  to  cut  them  up  than  they  were  worth.  There  was  an 
attempt,  I  believe,  to  make  use  of  them  as  torpedo  boats,  but  they  were 
so  deficient  in  speed  as  to  be  hardly  able  to  get  out  of  their  own  way. 
I  remember  of  one  that  came  there,  on  the  James  Biver,  without  any 
turret,  and  she  had  a  gun  up ;  and  the  idea  of  an  unprotected  gun  on 
the  deck  of  a  monitor  was  a  new  one  to  me  at  the  time,  and  it  made  a 
forcible  impression  on  me. 

Change  of  occupation  was  Ericsson's  play,  and  in  spite  of  the 

enormous  load  upon  him  when  he  was  devoting  from  twelve  to 

fourteen  hours  a  day  to  Government  work,  he  found  time  to 

turn  aside  to  commend  to  the  President  of  the  United  States 

Vol.  IL— 3 


84  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

the  adoption  of  a  repeating  rifle.  Had  his  advice  concerning 
this  been  acted  upon,  not  only  would  tlie  Government  have 
had  an  addition  to  the  aggressive  power  during  the  war  equiva- 
lent to  a  reinforcement  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men,  but 
it  would  have  been  twenty  years  in  advance  of  other  nations 
in  adopting  this  weapon,  now  in  use  in  every  modern  army 
except  that  of  the  United  States,  Ericsson's  letter  is  a  most 
significant  illustration  of  his  quick  apprehension  of  the  military 
necessities  of  the  time  on  sea  and  land  which  amounted  to 
genius.  "  To  His  Excellency,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of 
the  United  States,"  he  wrote,  August  2,  1862 : 

Sir  :  I  most  respectfully  call  your  attention  to  Mr.  Rafael's  repeat- 
ing rifle.  I  have  examined  this  formidable  war  instrument,  and  find  it 
free  from  those  imperfections  which  invariably  defeat  the  usefulness  of 
such  contrivances.  My  long  practical  experience,  together  with  my 
knowledge  of  military  matters,  enable  me  to  judge  with  sufficient  accu- 
racy of  the  utility  of  this  weapon.  By  its  adoption  the  detached  bodies 
of  men  necessary  to  retain  possession  of  the  places  captured  from  the 
rebels,  will  at  once  be  able  to  hold  out  against  and  defeat  the  concen- 
trated force  which  the  cunning  enemy  will,  from  time  to  time,  hurl 
upon  your  small  and  necessarily  isolated  detachments. 

The  time  has  come,  Mr.  President,  when  our  cause  will  have  to 
be  sustained  not  by  numbers,  but  by  superior  weapons.  By  a  proper 
application  of  mechanical  devices  alone  will  you.  be  able  with  absolute 
certainty  to  destroy  the  enemies  of  the  Union.  Such  is  the  inferiority 
of  the  Southern  States  in  a  mechanical  point  of  view,  that  it  is  suscep- 
tible of  demonstration  that,  if  you  apply  our  mechanical  resources  to  the 
fullest  extent,  you  can  destroy  the  enemy  without  enlisting  another  man. 

As  a  beginning  you  will  do  well  to  put  into  the  hands  of  your  ex- 
posed Western  detachments  the  little  war  engine  to  which  I  have  called 
your  attention.  One  regiment  of  intelligent  men  jirovided  with  a  hun- 
dred of  these  eflfective  weapons,  can  most  assuredly  defeat  and  destroy  a 
four-fold  number  of  enemies. 

Ericsson  also  found  time  to  suggest  to  the  Government  a  plan 

of  flying  artillery.  Of  this  Fox  wrote  September  27,  1862, 
saying:  "  Blair*  likes  it  much,  and  I  have  mentioned  it  to  the 
Army  Ordnance  and  the  Assistant  Secretary  of  War.  It  is 
pretty  hard  work  to  get  anything  started  here,  and  I  doubt  it* 
anything  can   be  done  unless  it  is  proved.     Blair  thinks  you 

*  General  Frank  P.  Blair,  brother-in-law  of  Mr.  Fox. 


INTERFERENCE   WITH   ERICSSON' S   PLANS.  36 

had  better  make  a  set  and  prove  how  easily  it  can  be  accom- 
plished, and  I  am  inclined  to  press  you  upon  the  subject  which 
I  call  monitors  on  shore ;  but  you  must  recollect  one  thing — 
your  brain  is  mortgaged  to  us  to  a  certain  extent.  Think  of  the 
iron-clad,  the  six-footers,  the  Puritan  and  the  Dictator.  You 
are  already  carrying  a  terrible  load,  and  I  beg  of  you  not  to 
overtask  it.  I  feel  we  are  incomplete  without  the  six-footers  ; 
the  enemy  will  draw  himself  into  his  shell  after  the  ten-footers 
have  hammered  him,  and  we  can't  get  him  out.  I  beg  of  you 
to  look  at  this — 20  feet  for  foreign  nations ;  10  feet  for  coast 
defence  and  harbor  work  ;  6  feet  for  rivers.  The  series  seem 
incomplete  without  them  ;  I  rely  upon  you  and  there  are  several 
shops  ready  to  go  into  theua." 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

BATTLE  RECORD   OF   THE   MONITORS. 

Evils  of  the  Navy  Bureau  System. — Two  Large  Monitors  Ordered. — The 
Dictator  and  the  PuHtan. — Poverty  of  the  Government. — Pecuniary 
Embarrassments. — Application  to  Congress  for  Relief. — Interfer- 
ence with  Ericsson's  Work. — Handsome  Acknowledgments  of  his 
Services. — The  Monitors  under  Fire. — Attempts  to  Capture  Charles- 
ton. — Dramatic  Episodes  of  War. 

AT  tlie  time  of  our  great  civil  war  the  Xavy  suffered,  as  it 
suffered  before,  and  as  it  still  suffers  in  lesser  measure, 
from  what  is  known  as  the  "  Bureau  System."  It  is  an  in- 
genious device  for  giving  to  incapacity,  indifference,  and  stupid- 
ity the  solemn  sanction  of  official  utterance ;  for  reducing  the 
pace  of  the  swiftest  to  that  of  the  slowest — the  zeal,  intelligence, 
and  energy  of  the  ablest  to  the  capacity  of  the  most  sluggish 
in  comprehension  and  the  most  inert  in  action.  The  building, 
equipping,  and  manning  of  naval  vessels  is  entrusted  to  half 
a  dozen  independent  bureau  chiefs,  a  single  incompetent  or 
sluggish  officer  may  thwart  the  most  zealous  efforts  of  his  as- 
sociates, and  the  plan  of  naval  selection  by  survival,  without 
regard  to  fitness,  influences  the  choice  of  bureau  officers, 
their  appointment  being  usually  limited  to  those  who  have 
grown  old  in  the  service,  but  not  necessarily  wise.  The  pres- 
ence in  the  Xavy  Department  of  Mr.  Fox,  who  had  broken 
away  from  the  influence  of  routine  and  tradition,  served  in  a 
measure  to  correct  the  evils  of  a  vicious  system,  but  only  in  a 
measure.  If  he  proposed,  he  must  of  necessity  leave  others  to 
ex'ecute,  and  the  result  was  delay  and  inaction  where  the  cir- 
cumstances imperatively  demanded  the  utmost  energy  in  per- 
formance. 

It  was  on  June  18, 1862,  as  we  have  seen,  that  Ericsson  was 
informed  by  Mr.  Fox  that  the  Department  had  resolved  to  build 
two  large  monitors;  it  was  not  until  August  8th  that  he  finary 


BATTLE   RECOED    OF   THE   MONITORS.  37 

received  authority  to  proceed  with  the  work  upon  them.  As  his 
specifications  for  these  vessels  had  been  submitted  to  the  De- 
partment on  May  19,  1862,  nearly  three  months  had  been  oc- 
cupied by  the  Xaval  Bureaus  in  moving  the  ponderous  ma- 
chinery of  oflficial  cogitation  to  the  point  of  action — a  period 
only  a  little  less  than  that  in  which  Ericsson  had  planned  a  ves- 
sel of  original  and  revolutionary  type,  executing  the  work  in  all 
its  details,  and  sent  it  into  action  to  startle  the  world  with  its 
achievement. 

The  Dictator  was  under  way,  indeed,  nearly  six  weeks  be- 
fore her  designer  had  proper  authority  for  commencing  her, 
and  from  this  time  on  the  history  of  his  dealings  with  the  De- 
partment concerning  this  vessel  and  her  sister  ship,  the  Puri- 
tan^ is  one  weary  record  of  delay  and  annoyance.  At  the  time 
the  original  contract  for  these  vessels  was  made,  no  practical 
knowledge  had  been  obtained  respecting  turreted  vessels,  ex-- 
cepting  from  the  brief  experience  of  the  original  Monitor. 
Accordingly,  the  specifications  of  the  contract  rested  mainly  on 
the  peculiar  mechanism  of  that  vessel.  The  Passaic  class  of  ar- 
mor-clads  were  tested  in  actual  service  some  eight  months  aftei 
the  date  of  the  contract.  Then,  various  defects  were  reported 
by  the  commanders  of  these  vessels.  These  Ericsson  was  re- 
quested by  the  Department  to  correct,  if  possible.  He  was  at 
the  same  time  informed  that  all  changes  and  improvements 
would  be  paid  for,  the  Assistant  Secretary  sending  word  to  the 
Government  Inspector  to  "  tell  Ericsson  we  want  all  his  im- 
provements, and  that  we  will  pay  liberally  for  the  same." 

This  was  sufficient  for  the  zealous  engineer,  whose  delight 
was  in  the  perfection  of  his  work  rather  than  in  the  pay  he  re- 
ceived for  it.  It  was  not  sufficient  for  his  shrewd  business  as- 
sociates. The  suggestions  for  change  multiplied  so  rapidly  that 
they  urged  Ericsson  to  embody  them  in  specifications  to  be  sub- 
mitted for  formal  approval  by  the  Xavy  Department.  A  sup- 
plementary specification  was  prepared,  and  the  amount  of  the 
additional  outlay  stipulated.  This  document,  occupying  sixty 
pages  of  foolscap,  was  presented  to  the  Department,  and  not  a 
single  modification  or  improvement  suggested  ;  but  when  it  came 
to  payment,  the  prices  were  objected  to  and  some  items,  "  con- 
trary t\    fact,  justice,  and  common   sense,"  as   Ericsson  justly 


88  LIFE  OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

son  tended,  were  ruled  out  as  forming  part  of  the  originnl  con 
tract.  !No  allowance  was  made  for  the  circumstance  that  price 
were  constantly  changing  at  this  war  period,  and  that  large  ad- 
vances in  the  cost  of  improvements  occurred  between  the  time 
of  submitting  the  specifications  for  them  and  the  actual  ordering 
of  the  work. 

Time  was  important,  and  under  the  continued  expectation 
that  the  Department  would  formally  approve  what  they  had 
informally  agreed  to  and  ordered,  Ericsson  and  his  associates 
expended  $650,000  on  the  vessels  up  to  May  9,  1864,  in  excess 
of  the  payments  by  the  Government.  He  could  not  go  further 
with  work  not  legally  authorized,  and  which,  as  his  experience 
with  the  Princeton  showed,  might  never  be  paid  for.  He 
was  compelled  accordingly  to  notify  the  Department  to  that 
effect,  calling  their  attention  at  the  same  time  to  the  great  in- 
crease in  prices  during  the  ten  months  occupied  by  the  Depart- 
ment in  cogitating  upon  his  supplementary  specifications  before 
they  were  ready  to  act  upon  them.  To  Mr.  Fox  he  wrote,  July 
27,  1864,  saying:  "Finishing  the  Dictator  under  the  present 
enhanced  prices  is  costly  beyond  my  worst  anticipations.  We 
pay  for  many  articles  four  times  as  much  as  they  would  have 
cost  about  the  time  we  made  the  contract.  I  derive  consolation 
from  the  reflection  that  when  done  the  ship  will  be  an  honor  to 
the  country." 

Xot  only  was  the  expenditure  in  excess  of  the  payments  on 
account  but  a  nominal  payment  by  the  Government  in  those 
days  meant  actually  the  issue  of  a  Treasury  warrant,  and  this 
must  be  sold  at  a  discount  to  secure  the  means  of  meeting:  the 
daily  demands  for  work  and  material.  "The  Government  is 
so  remiss  in  its  payments,"  wrote  one  of  the  gentlemen  whose 
business  it  was  to  discount  such  paper  in  July,  1864,  "  that  almost 
everyone  is  losing  confidence  in  its  paper,  and  it  is  impossible 
to  raise  money  on  bills  at  any  price;  checks  on  the  Sub-Treasury 
liave  of  late  been  endorsed  as  'good'  on  presentation,  and  the 
holders  obliged  to  wait  for  an  indefinite  time.  Contractors  have 
offered  three  per  cent,  on  their  bills  and  have  been  refused. 
Unless  there  is  a  very  marked  improvement  in  our  national  anc 
financial  matters,  we  must  decline  taking  any  more  Government 
MIU  from  any  party." 


BATTLE   RECOKD   OF   THE   MONITORS.  39 

For  a  jear  Ericsson  was  kept  in  this  state  of  suspense  and 
perplexity  by  the  inaction  of  the  Department.  For  this,  no 
doubt,  adequate  explanation  was  to  be  found  in  the  embarrass- 
ments of  the  time.  As  early  as  July,  1863,  he  had  been  obliged 
to  notify  the  contractors  to  stop  work  because  of  the  "  alarming 
position  in  which  he  was  placed  from  the  fact  that  the  Chief  of 
the  Bureau  of  Construction  "  had  not  sanctioned  changes  or- 
dered. One  hundred  thousand  dollars  had  then  been  expended 
upon  work  not  technically  authorized,  and  disbursements  were 
continuing  at  the  rate  of  $5,000  each  day. 

Nine  months  later  Ericsson  reported  to  his  friend  Fox,  that 
the  work  then  done  and  for  which  he  had  received  $1,634,365, 
could  not  be  reproduced  for  $3,500,000.  "I  have  done  all  that 
tact  and  perseverance  can  do  to  carry  the  work  almost  to  com- 
pletion, but  now  feel  compelled  to  say  that  the  immediate  pay- 
ment of  eight  and  one-third  per  cent,  of  the  reservation  on  the 
Dictator  is  indispensable."  This  payment  was  allowed  and  the 
reservation  reduced  from  one-quarter  to  one-sixth  of  the  amount 
of  the  contract.  The  reservation  had  been  originally  fixed  by 
the  Department  at  twenty  per  cent.,  and  increased  by  Ericsson 
for  some  reason  to  twenty-five  per  cent.,  making  a  difference 
against  himself  by  this  change  of  $230,000  on  the  two  ships, 
which  in  the  end  proved  to  be  a  serious  matter. 

This  was  a  temporary  relief,  but  not  sufficient.  By  June 
1,  1864,  Ericsson  and  his  associates  were  forced  to  notify  the 
Department  that  they  could  go  no  farther  with  the  Dictator, 
and  that  they  must  insist  upon  a  new  contract  for  the  Puri- 
tan at  increased  prices,  the  old  contract  having  been  vacated 
by  the  changes  and  delays  due  to  the  action  of  the  Depart- 
ment. This  applied  equally  to  the  case  of  the  Dictator,  but 
as  the  work  had  already  been  done  upon"  that  vessel  it  was 
too  late  to  insist  upon  this  point.  Up  to  that  date,  twenty-two 
months  had  been  occupied  in  building  the  two  vessels,  and  the 
outlay  upon  them  in  excess  of  receipts  was  $730,857,  and  $717,- 
926  more  was  required  to  complete  them.  Deducting  the 
amount  still  due  from  the  Government,  there  would  be  a  defi- 
ciency of  $581,437,  to  be  ultimately  made  good  by  Ericsson  and 
his  associates,  while  meantime  they  were  required  to  advance 
$1,447,883  before  receiving  payment  from  the  Government  of 


40  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

any  part  of  this  large  sum.  Had  they  been  suffered  to  carry  oiil 
the  contract  as  originally  agreed  to,  without  alteration  or  sug 
gestion  of  improvement  or  change,  the  vessels  would  have  long 
before  been  completed,  and  at  a  profit  to  the  associates. 

A  conference  was  arranged  in  Washington  between  Erics- 
son's three  associates,  Messrs.  "Winslow,  Griswold  and  Bushnell. 
and  the  Secretary,  Assistant  Secretary,  and  the  Chief  of  the 
Bureau  of  Construction,  Mr.  Lenthall.  "At  our  intimation 
that  we  should  not  deliver  the  Dictator  or  go  on  with  the 
Puritan,  they  did  not  seem  startled,"'  reported  Mr.  Winslow, 
"  but  rather  received  the  announcement  as  natural  and  proper ; 
and  while  emphasizing  the  utter  inability  of  the  Department 
to  make  any  increased  allowance  upon  the  contract  or  to  make 
a  new  and  amended  contract  for  the  want  of  authority,  yet 
they  conceded  we  ought  to  have  all  we  asked,  and  if  we  M'ould 
apply  to  Congress  for  it,  the  Department  would  aid  us  by 
direct  recommendation  in  its  favor." 

Application  m'us  accordingly  made  to  Mr.  Hale,  Chairman  of 
the  Senate  Naval  Committee.  Mr.  Winslow  confessed  to  hav- 
ing exerted  considerablediplomacy  in  convincing  him,  as  he  was 
"averse  to  doing  anything  which  he  suspected  might  not  be  in 
harmony  with  the  wishes  of  the  Department."  The  merits  of 
the  case  were  apparent,  and  Senator  Hale  took  prompt  action. 
A  resolution  was  prepared  that  evening,  presented  to  Mr.  Hale 
the  next  day,  and  favorably  acted  upon  by  the  Senate  on  the 
following  day,  and  a  month  later  had  finally  passed  the  two 
houses  of  Congress.  This  resolution  required  the  completion 
of  the  Dictator  under  the  existing  contract,  but  authorized  the 
payment  for  the  less  advanced  P^^ri^a^i  at  its  "  present  value 
as  far  as  completed,"  and  the  value  of  the  material  on  hand 
"  deemed  actually  necessary  to  her  construction."  This  valu** 
was  to  be  determined  by  a  Board  and  the  vessel  was  to  be  com- 
pleted by  the  Government. 

In  a  letter  addressed  to  Senator  Hale,  in  support  of  the 
memorial  of  Ericsson,  Secretary  Welles  described  the  monitors 
as  havine:  rendered  invaluable  service  to  the  country  throuirh 
"  their  great  strength,  wonderful  capability  of  endurance,  power 
of  resistance,  and  efficiency,"  all  of  which  have  been  "abun- 
dantly proven."     They  were  described  as  vessels  "  that  could 


BATTLE   EECOKD   OF  THE  MONITORS.  41 

and  would  in  conflict  overcome  the  most  formidable  armored 
ships  afloat."  So  far  as  the  work  on  the  Dictator  and  Puri" 
tan  was  completed,  Mr.  Welles  said : 

It  is  but  justice  to  say  that  it  is  in  all  respects  creditable  to  the 
memorialist  and  satisfactory  to  the  Department.  That  the  memorialist 
and  his  associates  or  sub-contractors  are  liable  and  likely  to  sustain  loss 
on  the  vast  expenditure  that  has  been  made  under  the  original  contract 
is  not  questioned.  The  Department,  knowing  the  embarrassments  at- 
tending this  great  outlay,  has  extended  its  favorable  consideration  to 
this  case.  The  work  was  novel,  unanticipated  delays  intervened,  great 
changes  have  taken  place  in  our  monetaiy  concerns,  affecting  prices  and 
every  business  interest,  for  none  of  which,  however,  was  this  Depart- 
ment responsible,  and  could  therefore  afford  no  relief.  The  case  is  one 
that  presents  itself  to  Congress  for  fair  and  liberal  consideration.  The 
memorialist  has  been  a  public  benefactor,  and  in  the  fulness  of  his  pa- 
triotic zeal  has  freely  given  to  his  country  the  productions  of  his  genius 
and  the  labors  of  a  remarkable  mind.  In  doing  this,  and  in  undertaking 
to  furnish  the  Government  with  vessels  that  would  give  it  maritime  su- 
premacy, he  does  not  appear  to  have  been  influenced  by  pecuniary  mo- 
tives. His  work  has  been  well  done,  and  is  worthy  of  the  Government 
and  countiy.  Machineiy  to  execute  his  contract  has  to  some  extent 
had  to  be  made  by  the  memorialist  in  order  to  construct  his  vessels, 
which  are  themselves  novel  in  naval  architecture.  These  and  other 
causes,  partly  at  least  governmental,  contribute  to  make  his  case  an 
unusual  one. 

This  was  the  sentiment  of  the  Secretary  and  of  his  Assist- 
ant. Handsome  as  was  this  acknowledgment  of  the  ser- 
vices of  Ericsson,  it  did  not  relieve  him  from  the  consequences 
of  the  illiberality  of  the  Bureaus  in  passing  upon  his  contract. 
"  Notwithstanding  the  positive  recommendation  of  Admiral 
Gregory  to  pay  the  whole  amount  claimed,"  he  wrote  to  Sena- 
tor Hale,  "  and  notwithstanding  the  award  in  my  favor  of  two 
separate  boards  of  naval  officers  and  engineers,  more  than  one- 
third  of  the  work  enumerated  in  my  supplemental  specification 
for  extra  work  has  been  ruled  out  by  the  Department  under 
the  assumption  (most  erroneous  in  my  humble  opinion)  that  it 
formed  part  of  the  contract.  Is  or  is  this  all,  for  the  prices  in 
my  supplemental  specification  were  fixed  a  year  ago,  since 
which  an  increase  of  thirty  per  cent,  on  labor  and  material  has 
taken  place." 

Thus  it  would  appear  that  Ericsson's  diflBculties  with  the 


42  LIFE  OP  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

Dictator  and  Puritan  were  the  result  partly  of  his  professional 
anxiety  to  make  his  work  complete,  which  led  him  to  too  con- 
fident a  reliance  upon  unofficial  promises  of  reimbursement  for 
his  increased  outlay ;  partly  to  the  peculiar  conditions  of  the 
times;  but  chiefly  to  the  difficulty  of  accomplishing  anything 
through  the  cumbersome  machinery  of  Boards  and  Bureaus. 
Government  used  plans  it  never  paid  him  for  to  build  vessels 
in  competition  with  him  in  the  same  ship-yards,  and  to  com- 
pete with  him  for  labor  and  material  in  markets  depleted  in  a 
measure  of  supplies  by  the  enormous  demands  of  war,  and  of 
labor  by  the  temptations  offered  for  enlistment. 

Even  the  draft  ordered  in  1863,  to  fill  the  thinned  ranks  of 
the  Army,  came  in  to  threaten  him  and  others  with  the  fur- 
ther deprivation  of  workmen  compelled  to  respond  to  an  en- 
forced demand  for  military  service.  This  obliged  him  to  ap- 
peal to  the  Government  to  exempt  the  men  engaged  upon 
Government  work  from  the  obligations  of  the  conscription. 
In  support  of  his  appeal  he  urged  that  exemption  from  mili- 
tary service  for  men  employed  on  the  national  vessels  would 
infuse  new  life  into  the  building  yards,  attracting  to  them 
skilful  and  good  workmen  in  great  numbers.  "  A  man  draft- 
ed to  pursue  rebels  or  dig  trenches,  does  not,"  he  contended, 
"  contribute  more  efi^ectually  to  the  defence  of  the  nation  than 
the  toiling  laborer  who  heats  and  clenches  the  rivets  of  the  ar- 
mor intended  to  resist  hostile  shot." 

A  million  and  a  half  of  men  had  by  this  time  been  called 
into  the  military  service  of  the  United  States,  and,  making  all 
allowance  for  re-enlistments,  much  over  one  million  had  been 
actually  taken  from  the  industries  of  the  North,  besides  the 
army  of  those  engaged  in  the  vast  system  of  industries  imme- 
diately connected  with  the  supply  and  transportation  of  troops. 
Finances  were  disordered,  and  prices  of  material  subjected  to 
the  most  rapid  fluctuations,  as  the  sensitive  pulses  of  traffic  beat 
responsive  to  the  good  or  evil  fortune  of  capricious  war.  More 
than  a  thousand  engagements  of  greater  or  lesser  moment  were 
already  on  the  record,  and  still  we  had  not  reached  the  skir- 
mish known  as  that  of  the  "  Devil's  Back  Bone,"  which  stands 
midway  between  engagement  Xo.  1,  the  "  Assault  on  Fort  Sum- 
ter," on  April  12,  1861,  and  engagement  No.  2,261,  the  "  Sur< 


BATTLE  RECORD   OF  THE  MONITORS.  43 

render  of  Kirby  Smith,"  a  little  more  than  four  years  later, 
which  is  officially  declared  to  have  ended  the  war.  It  was  thus 
at  the  very  high  tide  of  military  contention  and  business  dis- 
turbance that  Ericsson  was  called  upon  to  do  his  heaviest  work 
for  the  Government. 

When  the  "  big  vessels,''  as  they  were  called,  were  first  pro- 
jected, the  Department  considered  the  advisability  of  building 
three  or  four.  Mr.  Fox  thought  there  should  be  four,  and  wrote 
to  ask  whether  this  number  could  not  be  built  for  a  million  of 
dollars  each ;  Ericsson  replied  most  emphatically  that  it  was  im- 
possible to  build  them  for  less  than  the  price  named.  This  was 
$1,150,000  for  each.  He  added  that  to  build  them  for  this 
price  it  was  necessary  that  detailed  working  plans  should  be  fur- 
nished at  once  for  every  part  of  the  vessel  and  machinery,  to  en- 
able manufacturers  to  estimate  the  cost  with  perfect  accuracy 
and  to  start  the  work  right  away.  Everyone  can  understand 
the  embarrassment  a  contractor  was  subjected  to  who  was  ex- 
posed to  constant  delays  and  changes  under  the  conditions  of  a 
rising  market.  Good  work  Ericsson  would  have  at  any  price. 
To  one  of  his  sub-contractors  he  wrote  :  "  If  the  enforcement  of 
good,  honest,  accurate  work  is  likely  to  produce  what  you  know 
as  '  a  row '  under  your  present  foreman,  you  will  do  well  at  once 
to  make  a  change." 

AVhen  we  recall  the  shameful  waste  of  money,  and  the  mel- 
ancholy loss  of  life,  resulting  during  our  great  war  from  the 
ignorant  or  dishonest  neglect  of  the  obligations  of  public  duty, 
the  record  of  John  Ericsson  as  a  contractor  shines  out  like  a  star 
from  the  gloom  of  night.  In  a  circular  dated  "  Navy  Depart- 
ment, December  24, 1864,"  Secretary  Gideon  "Welles  said :  "The 
lives  of  our  brave  men  and  the  honor  of  the  flag  are  bound  up 
in  a  rigid  inspection  of  all  our  iron  contracts,  and  yet  there  is 
not  a  single  instance  known  where  a  superintending  engineer 
has  held  a  contractor  through  every  step  of  his  work  to  an  exact 
compliance  with  every  specification  of  his  contract."  "  An 
engineer  of  approved  integrity  and  rigid  and  critical  ability," 
Chief  Engineer  J.  W.  King,  U.S.N.,  was  accordingly  appointed 
to  examine  all  contract  iron  work  in  progress.  The  next  year 
he  reported  on  thirty  different  establishments,  especially  com- 
mending the  work  of  two  contractors.     These   two  were  the 


44  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

Corlies  Engine  Co.,  and  John  Ericsson.  Of  the  work  of  the 
engines  and  boilers  of  the  Madaioaska,  built  at  the  Allaire  works 
under  the  direction  of  Ericsson,  Mr.  King  said,  "The  workman- 
ship throughout  on  all  the  boilers  is  first  class  and  the  material 
sound,  so  far  as  can  be  seen.  The  iron  was  not  tested,  because 
no  pieces  could  be  found  from  which  the  shells  were  made." 
Altogether,  Mr.  King  examined  245  marine  boilers  in  different 
parts  of  the  country. 

During  the  civil  war,  $61,781,684  were  spent  on  the  hulls  and 
engines  of  121  vessels  which  had  to  be  condemned  and  broken 
up  within  a  short  time,  all  of  them  having  disappeared  from 
the  naval  list  within  the  next  twelve  or  thirteen  years,  leaving 
as  their  relics  only  a  half  a  dozen  sets  of  machinery  stored  at 
Xavy  Yards.  Thirty  of  these  vessels  never  did  a  day's  service. 
Nine  of  them,  besides  the  wretched  light-draught  monitors, 
were  condemned  on  the  stocks,  or  before  they  went  into  com- 
mission. Altogether,  nearly  eighteen  millions  of  dollars  were 
expended  upon  vessels  utterly  worthless  from  the  beginning. 
In  addition,  four  and  a  half  million  of  dollars  were  wasted  in 
building  engines  for  nine  ships  which  were  never  built  nor  even 
started.  These  vessels,  be  it  remembered,  were  not  ordered 
merely  for  war  purposes,  but  for  durability  and  to  furnish  a 
permanent  increase  to  the  Xav^y.  Some  of  them  rotted  on  the 
stocks  before  they  were  launched.* 

Following  its  encounter  with  the  Merrimac^  the  original 
Monitor  was  sent  up  the  James  River,  with  the  iron-clad  Gale- 
na and  several  wooden  vessels,  to  make  a  demonstration  against 
Richmond.  This,  says  Professor  Soley,  was  "  one  of  the  boldest 
and  best  conducted  operations  of  the  war,  and  one  of  which 
very  little  notice  has  been  taken.  Had  Commander  Rodgers 
been  supported  by  a  few  brigades,  landed  at  City  Point  or  above 
on  the  south  side,  Richmond  would  have  been  evacuated.  The 
Virginias  crew  alone  barred  his  way  to  Richmond  ;  otherwise 
the  obstructions  would  not  have  prevented  his  steaming  up 
to  the  city,  which  would  have  been  as  much  at  liis  mercy  as 
was  New  Orleans  before  the  fleet  of  Farragut"  ("Battles  and 
Leaders  of  the  Civil  War,"  p.  761). 

It  was  the  first  time  that  the  Monitor  had  been  subjected 
*  See  TestimoDj  before  Committee  on  Naval  Afifairs,  1879. 


BATTLE  EECORD   OF  THE  MOlSriTORS.  46 

to  the  fire  of  forts,  and  Rodgers  reported  that  she  "  could  not 
have  done  better."  Thirteen  shot  and  shell  perforated  the  side 
of  the  Galena,  killing  thirteen  men  and  wounding  eleven  with 
fragments  of  her  own  iron.  There  were  no  casualties  on  the 
Monitor  and  she  was  struck  but  three  times,  no  damage 
being  done.  Being  asked  his  opinion  as  to  the  danger  of  pierc- 
ing the  decks  by  the  plunging  fire  from  the  forts,  Ericsson  re- 
plied that  there  was  no  danger.  "  Much  is  feared,"  he  said, 
"  from  plunging  fire  by  those  who  only  look  up  to  the  top  of  a 
hill  without  estimating  the  relative  proportions  of  base  and  al- 
titude. It  very  seldom  happens  that  batteries  are  high  enough 
to  give  an  effective  plunging  fire.  In  the  Crimea  there  were  a 
few  instances  of  effective  plunging  shot." 

Still,  Ericsson  was  the  victim  of  no  delusions  concerning  his 
vessels,  and  as  we  have  seen,  he  did  not  share  the  enthusiastic 
belief  of  some  of  his  admirers  that  they  could  be  effectually  used 
in  an  open  attack  against  forts.*  As  early  as  September  30, 
1862,  he  w^rote  to  Mr.  Fox:  "  I  strongly  urged  Mr.  Stimers 
yesterday  to  impress  you  with  the  fact  that  the  number  of  fif- 
teen-inch guns,  rather  than  the  number  of  vessels,  will  decide 
your  success  against  the  stone  forts." 

The  Southern  city  of  Charleston  was  at  this  time  occupying 
the  attention  of  the  Navy  Department,  and  on  April  10,  1863, 
he  wrote  with  reference  to  the  use  of  the  monitors  in  the  naval 
attack,  saying : 

I  candidly  confess  that  I  cannot  share  in  your  confidence  relative  to 
the  capture  of  Charleston.  I  am  so  much  in  the  habit  of  estimating 
force  and  resistance  that  I  cannot  feel  sanguine  of  success.  If  you  do 
succeed,  it  will  not  be  a  mechanical  consequence  of  your  "marvel- 
lous "  vessels,  but  because  you  are  marvellously  fortunate.  The  most  / 
dare  hope  is,  that  the  contest  will  end  without  the  loss  of  that  j^restige 
which  your  iron-clads  have  confei'red  on  the  nation  abroad.  If  armed 
with  proper  guns,  I  believe  your  seven  turret-vessels,  now  before  Charles- 
ton, would  destroy  the  whole  present  fleet  of  England.     A  single  shot 

*  Ten  years  after  the  war  Ericsson  wrote,  saying  :  "In  reply  to  your  kind 
letter  asking  for  a  copy  of  '  acknowledgments  received  complimentary  to 
what  you  are  pleased  to  call  my  '  great  work,'  I  beg  to  state  that  nothing 
could  iuduce  me  to  lay  before  the  world  the  approving  opinions  of  the  monitor 
system  without  also  presenting  the  adverse  criticisms  of  my  work  which  learned 
as  well  as  skilful,  practical  men  have  written  in  great  numbers. '' 


46  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

will  sink  a  ship,  while  a  Imnclred  rounds  cannot  silence  a  fort,  as  you 
have  proved  on  the  Ogeechee.  The  immutable  laws  of  force  and  resist- 
ance do  not  favor  your  enterprise.  Chance  therefore  can  only  save  you. 
I  am  much  pleased  to  learn  that  you  intend  to  visit  New  York,  but 
hope  you  will  not  wait  until  the  "  Charleston  matter  is  settled." 

Could  anything  be  clearer  than  this  ?  Could  any  judgment  be 
freer  from  the  bias  of  prejudice  in  favor  of  one's  own  creations 
than  Ericsson  showed  his  to  be  in  this  particular  instance  ?  If 
he  did  not  believe  the  monitors  could  subdue  forts,  attacking 
them  bv  day,  he  did  believe  that  they  would  have  great  ad- 
vantages in  an  attack  by  night.  As  he  also  believed  that  they 
could  with  impunity  run  by  fortifications,  however  heavily 
armed,  if  they  had  an  unobstructed  channel,  his  efforts  were 
directed  to  devisinor  some  means  of  clearinor  the  wav  for  them 
into  Charleston  harbor.     To  Fox  he  wrote  (October  24,  1862)-- 

Mr.  Stimers  has  mentioned  to  me  the  subject  of  the  removal  of  the 
obstruction  in  the  harbor  of  a  certain  Southern  city.  As  the  problem  is 
an  old  one  in  military  science,  I  am  not  quite  unprepared  to  advise  in 
the  matter.  The  removal  of  piles  by  the  process  of  explosion  is  a  very 
tedious  one,  and  nearly  impracticable  under  the  enemy's  guns.  The 
explosion  of  powder  under  water  is  quite  local,  its  effect  being  remark- 
ably limited,  owing  to  the  incompressible  nature  and  great  specific 
gravity  of  water.  Should  you  be  correct  in  your  supposition  that  piles 
form  the  chief  obstruction,  we  can  make  short  work  of  it  by  iiloughing 
a  channel  through  it  by  means  of  a  deep  iron-bound  raft  pushed  by  one 
of  our  monitors,  the  process  being  a  continuous  butting  and  backing- 
This  operation  can  be  carried  on  quite  well  during  the  darkness  of  night 
by  mooring  two  vessels  in  line  with  the  desired  channel.  The  butting 
vessel  by  taking  back  sight  can,  in  this  way,  operate  accurately  in  any 
given  line.  I  shall  be  very  happy  to  contrive  the  butting  raft  of  such  a 
form  as  to  suit  the  bow  of  our  vessels  without  straining  the  same  during 
the  heavy  butting  operation. 

Ericsson's  belief  in  the  possibilities  of  a  night  attack  upon 
Charleston  is  confirmed  by  that  of  P.  G.  T.  Beauregard,  the 
best  Confederate  authority  on  this  subject.  "Writing  to  the 
Pldladeljyhia  Weekly  Times  in  October,  1877,  General  Beau- 
regard said  : 

It  is  pertinent  for  me,  professionally,  to  remark  that,  had  the  Fed- 
eral naval  attack  on  Fort  Sumter  of  April  G,  1803,  been  made  at  night, 


BATTLE  RECORD   OF  THE  MONITORS.  47 

while  the  fleet  could  easily  have  approached  near  enough  to  see  the 
fort — a  large,  lofty  object,  covering  several  acres — the  monitors,  which 
were  relatively  so  small  and  low  on  the  water,  could  not  have  been  seen 
from  the  fort.  It  would  have  been  impossible,  therefore,  for  the  latter 
to  have  returned,  with  any  accuracy,  the  fire  of  the  fleet,  and  this  plan 
of  attack  could  have  been  repeated  every  night  until  the  walla  of  the 
fort  should  have  crumbled  under  the  enormous  missiles  which  made 
holes  two  and  a  half  feet  deep  in  the  walls,  and  shattered  the  latter  in 
an  alarming  manner.  I  could  not  then  have  repaired  during  the  day 
the  damages  of  the  night,  and  I  am  confident  now,  as  I  was  then,  that 
Fort  Sumter,  if  thus  attacked,  must  have  been  disabled  and  silenced  in 
a  few  days.  Such  a  result,  at  that  time,  would  have  been  necessarily 
followed  by  the  evacuation  of  Morris  and  Sullivan  Islands,  and  soon 
after  of  Charleston  itself,  for  I  had  not  yet  had  time  to  complete  and 
arm  the  systqm  of  works,  including  James  Island  and  the  inner  harbor, 
which  enabled  us,  six  months  later,  to  bid  defiance  to  Admiral  Dahl- 
gren's  powerful  fleet  and  Gillmore's  strong  land  forces. 


In  a  letter  enclosing  this  to  Ericsson,  Captain  Fox  said : 
"  This  confirms  all  you  said  at  the  time,  and  justifies  the  De- 
partment in  its  course  then  pursued,  though  we  were  obliged  to 
differ  with  one  of  our  great  admirals"  (Du  Pont).  In  his  ac- 
count of  the  military  operations  of  General  Beauregard,  his 
aid-de-camp,  Alfred  Roman,  repeats  this  statement  more  in  de- 
tail, saying : 

"  What  General  Beauregard  apprehended  most  was  a  night 
attack  by  the  Federal  monitors  and  iron-clads.  During  a  dark 
night  nothing  could  prevent  them  taking  a  position  sufficiently 
near  Fort  Sumter,  and  there  opening  fire  upon  it  with  almost 
certain  impunity.  By  repeating  the  manoeuvre  several  nights 
in  succession,  they  might  eventually  batter  down  the  walls  of 
the  fort  and  dismount  most  of  its  guns,  or  blow  up  its  maga- 
zines. It  was  evident  that  Sumter,  being  a  large  object,  could 
be  seen  well  enough  to  bo  fired  at  with  approximate  precision, 
even  at  night ;  while  the  monitors,  being  small,  and  lying  low 
in  the  water,  would  hardly  be  discernible  from  the  fort,  and, 
if  made  to  change  their  positions  after  each  discharge,  might 
render  impossible  any  accuracy  of  aim  on  the  part  of  our  gun- 
ners, who  would  be  left  with  nothing  else  to  guide  them  but 
the  flash  of  tlie  enemy's  pieces.  And  General  Beauregard  was 
of  the  opinion  that,  by  establishing  floating  lights  of  different 


48  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

colors  at  the  entrance  of  the  various  channels  leading  into  tho 
inner  harbor,  and  by  frequent  soundings,  rendered  easy  by 
most  excellent  coast-survey  maps  in  the  possession  of  the  Fed- 
eral commanders,  the  plan  of  attack  just  described  could  have 
been  carried  out  with  no  serious  difficulty,  and  to  the  advantage 
of  the  enemy,  especially  if  undertaken  while  the  tides  were 
stationary,  or  nearly  so.  Fortunately,  however,  Admiral  Du 
Pont,  and  the  other  naval  commanders  having  charge  of  the 
hostile  fleet,  did  not  attempt  this  simple  mode  of  attack,  against 
which  the  guns  of  Sumter  and  of  the  works  around  the  har- 
bor would  have  been  almost  powerless."  * 

The  rafts  suggested  by  Ericsson  were  prepared  and  sent  to 
Charleston,  where  one  of  them  was  attached  to  the  monitor  Wee- 
liawken — leading  the  advance  in  the  attack  of  April  7,  1S63. 
The  commander  of  the  Vi^eehawken  reported  saying  :  "  Xo  vessel 
could  carry  it  except  in  smooth  water.  Its  motions  did  not  cor- 
respond to  the  movements  of  the  WeehawTcen.  Sometimes 
when  she  rose  to  the  sea  the  raft  fell,  and  the  reverse.  Thus 
we  were  threatened  with  having  it  on  our  decks  under  the  over- 
hang. Xo  prudent  man  would  carry  the  torpedo  attached  to 
the  raft  in  a  fleet ;  an  accidental  collision  would  blow  up  his 
own  friend,  and  he  would  be  more  dreaded  than  an  enemy." 

Ericsson,  who  did  not  accept  this  conclusion,  wrote  to  Mr. 
Fox:  "Our  naval  operations  at  Charleston  are  conducted  in  a 
manner  calculated  to  work  great  mischief.  It  is  truly  unfortu- 
nate that  your  original  plan  of  breaking  up  the  obstructions 
and  running  past  the  forts  has  not  been  carried  out.  It  is  now 
evident  that,  unless  you  order  the  rafts  to  be  employed  at  once, 
the  prestige  of  the  monitor  system  will  receive  a  fatal  blow. 
xVny  broadside  vessel  covered  with  four-inch  plating  and  armed 
with  eleven-inch  shell  guns  will  beat  the  whole  monitor  fleet 
out  of  sight  at  shelling  forts.  Yet  a  monitor,  with  her  fifteen- 
inch  solid  shot  could  sink  such  broadside  vessel  to  the  bottom 
in  ten  minutes.  I  trust,  sir,  that  you  will  interpose  vour 
strong  arm  and  at  once  order  the  monitors  to  be  pushed  straight 
up  against  the  rebel  obstructions,  armed  with  the  rafts  and 
bottom  scrapers.     The  reluctance  to  employ  the  rafts  amazes 

*  Military   Operations  of   Gen.  Beauregard,  by  Alfred  Koman,   vol.   ii., 
p.  62. 


BATTLE   RECORD   OF  THE   MONITORS.  49 

me,  as  the  perfect  safety  against  the  enemy's  torpedoes  insured 
by  the  bottom  scrapers  is  self-evident." 

Again,  a  month  later,  he  wrote : 

"  That  3'our  rafts  with  their  thirty-feet  shells — if  an  adequate 
number  be  exploded — will  remove  the  obstructions,  there  can 
be  no  doubt ;  but  I  foresee  certain  destruction  to  the  monitors, 
with  their  unjprotected  jprojyellers^  when  the  vessels  reach  the 
inner  harbor.  I  need  not  remind  you  of  what  you  have  so 
often  pointed  out,  viz.,  that  the  most  insignificant  obstructions 
may  entangle  the  propeller  and  thereby  render  the  vessel  help- 
less." The  shells  referred  to  were  thirty  feet  long,  weighed 
over  six  thousand  pounds,  and  carried  a  charge  of  seven  hun- 
dred pounds  of  powder.  In  preliminary  experiments  with  them 
it  was  found  that  they  subjected  the  raft  to  no  danger,  as  the 
explosive  force  acted  forward. 

The  Obstruction  Remover,  or  ."boot-jack,"  as  the  sailors 
called  it,  was  designed  to  clear  the  channel  of  all  obstacles  in- 
terfering with  the  passage  of  a  vessel,  including  torpedoes, 
fixed  or  floating,  and  electric  torpedoes  at  anchor.  It  was  a 
raft,  fastened  in  front  of  an  advancing  vessel,  and  carrying  tor- 
pedoes so  arranged  as  to  be  fired  upon  contact  with  an  obstruc- 
tion, the  force  of  the  explosion  being  thrown  forward  by  plac- 
ing air-chambers  in  front  of  the  torpedoes,  so  that  the  resistance 
was  less  in  that  direction  than  any  other.  The  diagrams  on 
pages  50  and  56  show  the  nature  of  this  contrivance. 

To  the  son  of  the  Admiral  who  succeeded  Du  Pont  in  com- 
mand, Dahlgren,  Ericsson  wrote,  January  18,  1864: : 

I  note  particularly  what  you  say  of  the  ability  of  a  dozen  monitors 
to  take  Charleston.  I  cannot  agree  with  yon.  My  opinion  is  that  if 
the  Admiral  should  rashly  bring  his  dozen  turret-vessels  into  the  fire 
of  the  batteries  of  the  inner  harbor,  among  the  numerous  entangling 
obstructions,  he  will  be  compelled  to  leave  half  the  number  behind, 
and  come  out  without  having  taken  Charleston.  Has  it  not  been  fully 
established  that  you  cannot  silence  a  single  small  fort  ?  Why,  then,  im- 
agine that  you  can  destroy  a  series  of  fortifications  ;  ingenious  construc- 
tions to  afford  perfect  protection  to  their  defenders,  your  destroyers  ? 
Admiral  Dahlgren  has  already  achieved  his  greatest  triumph  at  Charles- 
ton by  shutting  up  the  port.  He  has  earned  the  lasting  gratitude  of 
the  nation  by  this  act  and  damaged  the  rebellion  to  an  incalculable  ex- 
tent. His  merit  will  be  acknowledged  in  due  season,  and  the  good  use 
Vol.  II.— 4 


Explotiv*  Apparatus  of  the  Obstruction  Remover.     Plan  and  Cross-sectiorii 

T,  T*,  T.  Bxplonve  apparatus  formed  of  two  cast-iron  shells,  each  11 5^  feet  lone  br  It 
tnches  in  diameter,  chained  with  350  pounds  of  Xo.  7  powder,  the  two  beint:  united  in  1''  by 
means  at  a  water-tight  jwnt.  A,  A,  A.  A.  Copper  air-chambers  fitted  to  the  front  of  the  tor- 
pedo In  order  to  dirwt  the  force  of  the  explosion  forward.  B,  B,  Sqoare  timben:  to  which  the 
torpedoes  and  the  air-chambers  are  fastened.  C,  C.  Triseer-board  placed  parallel  to  the  beam 
B,  B.  and  attached  to  it  by  the  rods  a.  a,  which  act  npoii  the  percossion  fuses  when  the  trieger- 
board  strikes  an  obstacle.  D.  D,  Triggers  connecting  with  tne  percusaioD  fuses  in  the  torpe- 
does.   £,  E.  Safety-pins  which  are  removed  at  the  proper  moment. 


BATTLE  EECORD   OF  THE  MONITORS.  51 

he  has  made  of  the  Mo7iitor  has  akeady  paid  the  cost  manj  times  over. 
It  will  greatly  add  to  your  father's  reputation  that  a  grand  naval  hero, 
his  predecessor,  declared  the  Monitor  inadequate  to  the  service  which, 
under  your  father's  skilful  direction,  has  been  so  successfully  per- 
formed. 

Admiral  Dahlgren  himself  was  more  sanguine,  for  he  wrote 
seven  months  later  than  this,  from  off  Charleston  (August  4, 
1864) : 

The  positive  evidence  here  in  favor  of  the  monitors  is  very  plain — 
what  has  not  been  done  with  them  amounts  to  nothing  against  them.  I 
do  not  object  to  fight  forts  with  them — nor  even  forts,  iron-clads,  and 
obstructions  combined,  as  here — but  should  like  enough  monitors  to 
make  sure  of  a  useful  result,  and  not  hazard  interests  more  important 
than  even  Charleston,  which  a  disaster  to  the  only  iron-clad  fleet  of  the 
Union  would  have  insured. 


The  monitor  Tecximseh^  lost  in  Admiral  Farragut's  attack 
upon  Mobile,  August  5,  1S64,  was  the  victim  neither  of  forts 
nor  iron-clads,  but  of  a  torpedo  which  she  ran  against  owing  to 
the  neglect  of  her  commanding  officer.  Captain  T.  A.  Craven, 
to  keep  to  the  channel  lie  was  ordered  to  follow.  Describing 
this  occurrence,  a  distinguished  officer  of  the  U.  S.  Xavj,  Cap- 
tain Foxhall  A.  Parker,  in  his  "  Battle  of  Mobile  Bay,"  pp.  13 
and  26,  said : 


The  morale  of  the  Union  fleet  then  was  what  the  French  would  call 
superb  ;  all,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  placing  implicit  faith  in  Far- 
ragut,  and  all  prepared  to  take  any  risks  when  led  by  him.  Thus,  while 
the  Captain  of  the  Winnebago  was  coolly  walking  back  and  forth  on  the 
bridge  of  his  vessel,  giving  orders  first  to  the  gunners  of  one  turret, 
then  to  those  of  the  other,  how  to  direct  their  fire,  a  negro  seaman,  prob- 
ably stationed  at  the  life-buoy,  was  as  coolly  promenading  the  poop- 
deck  of  the  Galena.  Seemingly  unconscious  of  all  that  was  passing 
around  him,  this  man,  with  his  hands  ujilifted  to  heaven,  was  loudly 
singing  a  negro  hymn.  God  knows  wliat  thoughts  were  passing  through 
his  mind  on  this  his  day  of  jubilee  ! 

At  this  moment,  when  the  eyes  of  all  were  riveted  on  the  iron- 
clads, expecting  to  see  them  hotly  engaged  as  soon  as  the  Tecumseh 
should  have  passed  the  lines  of  torpedoes  intervening  between  them, 
the  Brooklyn  and  the  Hartford  poured  a  broadside  into  Fort  Morgan, 


52  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

driving  the  enemy  helter-skelter  from  their  barbette  and  water-bat- 
teries. 

The  sight  was  an  inspiriting  one,  and,  in  the  enthusiasm  of  the  mo- 
ment, the  gallant  Craven,  who  thirsted  for  the  honor  of  engaging  the 
ram  singly,  gave  the  fatal  order,  Hard  a-starboard  !  and  dashed  straight 
at  her,  his  course  taking  him  to  the  westward  of  the  large  red  buoy. 
The  bow  gun  of  the  Tennessee,  loaded  with  a  steel  bolt  weighing  140 
pounds,  was  kept  steadily  trained  upon  the  monitor  as  she  advanced. 

"Do  not  fire,  Mr.  Wharton," cried  Captain  Johnston,  of  the  Tennea- 
see,  "  until  the  vessels  are  in  actual  contact." 

"Aye,  aye,  sir,"  was  the  cool  response  of  Wharton,  as  he  stepped  to 
the  breech  of  the  bow  gun,  in  expectation  of  a  deadly  fight  at  close 
quarters. 

Scarce  were  the  words  uttered  when  the  Tecumseh,  reeling  to  port  as 
from  an  earthquake  shock,  foundered,  head  foremost,  with  almost  every 
soul  on  board,  destroyed  by  a  torjjedo.  A  few  of  her  crew  were  ob- 
served to  leap  wildly  from  her  turret ;  for  an  instant  her  screw  was  seen 
revolving  in  air — and  then  there  was  nothing  left  to  show  that  the  Te- 
cumseh had  ever  formed  one  of  that  proud  Union  fleet,  but  a  small  boat 
washed  from  her  deck,  and  a  number  of  half-drowned  men  struggling 
fiercely  for  life  in  the  seething  waters  which  had  closed  over  their  vessel 
forever. 

Such  was  the  fate  of  the  Tecumseh  ! 

Short  shrift  had  they  who  went  down  with  her !  Yet,  short  aa  the 
time  of  her  foundering  was,  it  has  furnished  us  with  one  of  those  mag- 
nificent episodes  of  war  which  make  famous  the  annals  of  nations. 

Craven  and  Mr.  John  Collins,  the  pUot  of  the  Tecumseh,  met,  as 
their  vessel  was  sinking  beneath  them,  at  the  foot  of  the  ladder  leading 
to  the  top  of  the  turret. 

Great  and  good  men  often  err  ;  but  they  differ  from  ordinary  moT'tals 
in  this,  that  they  are  willing  to  atone  for  their  errors  even  with  their 
lives,  if  necessary.  It  may  be,  then,  that  Craven,  in  the  nobility  of  his 
soul,  for  all  know  he  was  one  of  nature's  noblemen  ;  it  may  be,  I  say, 
that  in  the  nobility  of  his  soul,  the  thought  flashed  across  him  that  it 
was  through  no  fault  of  his  pilot  that  the  Tecumseh  was  in  this  peril ; 
he  drew  back.      "  After  you,  pilot,"  said  he  grandly. 

"There  was  nothing  after  me,"  relates  Mr.  Collins,  who  fortunately 
lived  to  tell  this  tale  of  heroism  ;  "  when  I  reached  the  utmost  round  of 
the  ladder,  the  vessel  seemed  to  drop  from  under  me." 

Yet  Craven's  words,  carried  to  heaven  by  approving  angels  as  evi- 
dence of  man's  humanity  to  man,  will  live  forever  in  the  book  of  life, 
with  no  tear  on  the  page  to  efface  the  record.  Therefore,  the  navy 
points  with  exultation — not  regret — to  the  buoy  off  Fort  Morgan,  which 
watches  over  his  iron  tomb. 

When  the  Tecumseh  went  down,  the  crew  of  the  Hartford  sprang 
npon  her  starboard  hammock  rail,  and  gave  three  loud,  defiant  cheers. 


BATTLE   RECORD   OF   THE   MONITORS.  53 

This  cheering  was  mistaken  by  the  crew  of  the  vessels  following  the 
Hartford,  as  an  indication  of  some  advantage  gained  over  the  enemy, 
and  taken  np  by  them  in  succession. 

"Admiral  Farragut  now  admits,"  said  Ericsson,  referring  to 
this  engagement,  "  that  a  single  monitor  can  sink  a  whole  fleet 
of  wooden  vessels.  He  was  convinced  after  seeing  his  own 
gun-deck  covered  witli  blood  and  mangled  bodies  by  the  fire 
from  the  ram,  while  on  board  the  turret-vessels  not  so  much 
blood  was  shed  as  a  mosquito  could  draw.'* 


CHAPTER  XXn. 

THE  MONITOR  VERSUS  THE   BATTLESHIP. 

The  Controversy  over  the  Monitor. — Its  Influence  npon  Naval  Construc- 
tion.— The  Tests  of  Battle. — The  Port-Stopper  and  Balanced  Rud- 
der.— Ericsson's  Ability  as  a  Writer. — Sailor  Characteristics. — Op- 
position of  Admiral  Du  Pont,  Captain  Percival  Drayton,  and  others. 
— Monitors  as  Sea-boats. — Engineering  Ignorance. — Ericsson's  Sea- 
lead. 

THE  controversy  started  by  the  advent  of  the  monitor  has 
not  yet  fought  itself  out,  but  many  of  the  arguments  and 
some  of  the  prejudices  arrayed  against  Ericsson  in  the  begin- 
ning have  been  eliminated  from  it.  He  was  required,  first  to 
establish  the  superiority  of  the  armored  to  the  unarmored 
vessel  for  the  purposes  of  war,  and  next  to  defend  a  peculiar 
and,  from  the  nautical  point  of  view,  most  obnoxious  system 
of  armored  construction,  against  assaults,  prompted  not  only 
by  objections  to  the  system  itself,  but  by  crudities  in  its 
early  examples  which  gave  just  occasion  for  offence.  The  de- 
ficiencies in  motive  power,  in  guns,  in  armor  plate  and  otlier 
material,  gathered  in  haste  and  put  together  by  inferior  work- 
men unfamiliar  with  their  tasks — all  these  counted  against  him 
in  the  public,  as  well  as  in  the  professional,  estimate  of  the 
value  of  his  system.  The  ignorance  of  the  engineers  and  fire- 
men, to  whom  the  management  of  these  novel  structures  was 
assigned,  and  the  inability  of  naval  officers,  trained  in  a  differ- 
ent school,  to  at  once  adapt  themselves  to  new  conditions — all 
were  urged  as  effective  arguments  for  the  adoption  of  some 
other  form  of  armored  battle-ship  ;  precisely  what  form  no  one 
knew  then,  no  one  knows  now,  so  far  as  agreement  of  profes- 
sional opinion  is  to  be  accepted  as  a  guide  to  knowledge. 

Tlie  tendency  of  naval  sentiment  is,  as  it  always  must  be,  to 
the  combination  in  a  single  vessel  of  incompatible  conditions. 


THE   MONITOR   VERSUS   THE   BATTLE-SHIP.  65 

For  speed  we  must  have  engine-room  and  coal  capacity  ;  for  of- 
fence, enormous  guns ;  for  defence,  heavy  armor  ;  for  the  com- 
fort of  officers  and  crew,  ample  space  for  wardroom,  steerage 
quarters  and  berth  decks.  To  combine  these  in  a  single  vessel, 
and  to  add  the  necessary  "  top  hamper  "  to  admit  of  carrying 
sail  in  the  event  of  a  temporary  loss  of  engine  power,  calls  for 
such  a  craft  as  never  yet  sailed  the  sea.  There  must  be  compro- 
mise somewhere,  and  the  warring  factions  are  still  disputing 
as  to  what  is  to  be  insisted  upon  as  most  essential.  If  in  times 
of  peace  the  claims  of  comfort,  of  dignity,  and  display  have  the 
first  place  in  naval  regard,  in  war  the  factors  of  offence  and  de- 
fence become  the  dominating  ones.  Xaval  officers  have  much 
the  same  objection  to  living  in  a  monitor  that  a  knight  of  old 
may  be  supposed  to  have  had  to  eating  and  sleeping  in  his 
armor.     It  is  for  the  fight  only. 

Ericsson  dealt  with  the  question  fi'om  the  point  of  view  of 
the  engineer,  and  he  always  insisted  that  his  monitors  were  not 
meant  to  be  vessels  in  the  strictly  nautical  sense,  but  floating 
batteries.  He  strove  to  combine  the  maximum  of  offence  and 
defence  bv  reducins:  the  area  of  the  floatino'  surface  he  was  re- 
quired  to  cover  and  the  number  of  guns  he  was  expected  to 
protect ;  concentrating  a  given  weight  of  metal  in  a  few  large 
pieces,  and  adding  to  their  aggressive  force  by  enlarging  the 
area  of  their  fire  from  an  arc  of  a  few  degrees  to  the  complete 
circle  of  three  hundred  and  sixty  degrees. 

The  extent  to  which  these  ideas  have  influenced  modern 
naval  construction  can  be  seen  by  examining  the  armor-clads  of 
any  naval  power.  Ericsson  further  added  complete  protection 
for  his  anchor,  rudder,  and  propeller  by  his  contrivance  of  an 
overhang,  discarding,  as  we  have  seen,  the  forward  overhang  in 
his  later  vessels  in  deference  to  naval  demands.  It  will  be  time 
enough  to  say  how  far  the  features  considered  by  him  as  essen- 
tial to  his  system  can  be  modified  or  dispensed  with,  when  ves- 
sels of  later  construction  are  subjected  to  such  a  test  of  battle 
as  his  monitors  endured. 

The  protection  given  by  the  rear  overhang  to  the  propeller 
was  so  complete  that  not  one  of  the  1,030  hits  received  by  the 
Passaic  class  of  monitors  injured  this  part  of  the  vessel.  The 
forward  overhang  gave  equal  protection  to   the  anchor,  and 


56 


LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON". 


this  could  be  raised  and  lowered  without  the  enemy  knowing 
whether  or  not  the  vessel  was  swinging  at  her  anchor.  The 
overhang,  no  doubt,  interfered  with  the  speed  of  the  vessel, 
but  it  was  in  no  danger  of  being  torn  away  by  the  upward 
action  of  the  water  underneath  it,  as  the  monitor  rose  and 
fell  with  the  waves.  This  effect  was  less  upon  the  submerged 
overhang  than  upon  the  over-hanging  paddle-boxes  of  an  ocean 
steamer.      The  central  idea  of   the   monitor  was   impregna- 


Obstructlon  Remover  of  Captain   Ericsson. 

F,  F,  Booms  of  the  explosive  apparatn?.  G,  G.  Cords  for  loweriDg  and  raising  the  appara- 
tus so  as  to  fix  it  at  a  proper  depth  below  the  surface  of  the  wat«r.  H,  H,  Three  circular  open- 
ings in  the  raft  throu'_'h  which  were  passed  the  chains  controllin£r  the  ends  of  the  booms  F,  F. 
K,  Raft  with  the  rear  cut  out  so  as  to  lit  the  end  of  a  monitor.  M,  Bow  and  overhang  of  the 
vessel.  N.  Anchor-well  of  the  monitor.  O,  O,  Kintrs  for  fasteniu':  the  raft  and  holding  in  a 
fixed  position.   P,  Anchor-well.   The  description  of  the  other  diagram  also  appUes  to  this  one. 

bility.  "  I  promised  the  Government  in  ISGl,"  said  Erics- 
son, "  to  keep  out  Confederate  shots  and  kept  my  promise. 
In  no  case  was  the  side-armor  or  turret  pierced."  The  port- 
holes of  the  turrets  were  closed  by  a  heavy  mass  of  iron,  jointed 
above  and  below,  so  that  it  could  be  turned  half  around  to 
clear  the  port  and  back  again  to  close  it.  Concerning  this 
"  port-stopper,"  as  it  was  called,  Ericsson  said  :  "  I  contem- 
plate this  simple  device  with  more  satisfaction  than  almost  any 
on  that  tolerably  extensive  catalogue  of  inventions  which  pro- 


THE   MONITOR   VERSUS   THE   BATTLE-SHIP.  57 

tracted  labor  lias  produced.  The  designing  of  an  efficient  port- 
stopper,  not  liable  to  derangement,  has  long  been  considered  by 
artillerists  and  military  engineers  as  an  idle  dream  of  schemers 
who  know  nothing  about  the  force  of  projectiles.  The  value 
of  the  turret  system  with  its  few  guns  is  not  only  enhanced, 
but  doubled,  by  the  absolute  protection  which  this  mechanical 
device  gives  to  the  armament  and  crew.  As  the  guns  are 
pointed  without  looking  through  the  ports,  the  port-stopper  is 
only  opened  when  the  gun  is  to  be  discharged,  and  again  closes 
the  instant  the  gun  recoils." 

In  a  comnmnication  to  the  Army  and  Navy  Journal^  Ko- 
vember  7,  1867,  Ericsson  said : 

The  fact  that  the  projectiles  of  our  opponents  during  the  late  con- 
flict did  not,  in  a  single  instance,  strike  the  port-stoppers  of  the  turrets, 
furnishes  the  best  argument  in  favor  of  the  jilan  insisted  uiDon  by  the 
constructor.  It  is  singular  that,  while  our  gallant  sailors  during  the 
war  frequently  appeared  on  the  decks  of  the  monitors  within  range  of 
the  enemy's  fire,  they  never  seemed  satisfied,  when  inside,  unless  they 
■were  hermetically  sealed  up. 

Another  feature  of  the  monitors  was  the  balanced  rudder, 
and  this  was  introduced  by  Sir  E.  Reed,  Chief  Constructor  of 
the  British  I^avy,  on  II.  M.  S.  Belleroj)Jion  in  1863.  Mr.  Reed 
having  been  accused  of  copying  it  without  credit,  said  in  reply, 
in  a  letter  addressed  to  John  Bourne : 

"  So  far  have  I  been  from  copying  the  balanced  rudder  un- 
acknowledged, that  the  fact  of  its  having  been  largely  used  by 
Mr.  Ericsson  in  his  monitors,  with  success,  was  my  strongest 
reason  for  pressing  for  permission  to  apply  it  to  the  Beller- 
(yphon  and  has  throughout  been  my  strongest  justification  for 
using  it.  I  have  always  said,  and  always  wish  it  to  be  said, 
that  the  general  adoption  of  the  balanced  rudder  by  Mr.  Erics- 
son was  a  very  scientific  and  bold  afPair,  and  that  I  doubt 
if  my  own  boldness  in  the  matter  (in  applying  it  for  the  first 
time  in  our  navy  to  a  ship  of  more  than  4,000  tons)  would 
have  been  approved  or  allowed  to  take  effect,  if  I  had  not  had 
Mr.  Ericsson's  confident  and  successful  example  to  appeal  to." 

In  response  to  a  statement  by  an  officer  of  the  British 
Navy  in  1865,  that  it  was  an  old  English  invention,  Ericsson 


08  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

said:  "I  myself  made  it  old  by  applying  the  balanced  rudder 
to  steamers  in  England  for  the  first  time  in  1S34: — thirty-one 
years  ago."  "When  he  found  that  it  was  to  be  appropriated  in 
England  without  credit,  he  applied  for  a  patent  for  it  there. 
"  There  is  no  question  about  the  balance  rudder  acting  as  a 
draff,"  he  said,  "  yet  such  are  its  advantages  in  point  of  steer- 
ing steamships  with  single  propellers  that  its  employment  is 
proper." 

The  relative  eflBciency  of  monitors  and  other  armored  vessels 
was  fully  tested  during  our  war.  "Whenever  the  trial  came  the 
monitor  type  most  signally  vindicated  itself ;  and  some  of  the 
most  striking  and  dramatic  episodes  of  the  war  are  connected 
with  its  history.     Summing  up  the  record,  Ericsson  said : 

"  Captain"Worden,  commanding  the  Mo ntauJi  {Passaic  class), 
discovered,  February  28,  1S63,  the  Confederate  corsair  KashvUle 
in  the  Ogeechee  River,  Georgia,  near  Fort  McAllister,  watching 
an  opportunity  to  slip  out  to  sea  past  the  Union  fleet.  The 
Confederate  vessel  was  hidden  by  thick  woods,  excepting  from 
a  point  opposite  the  fort  and  within  easy  range  of  its  guns. 
Here  AVorden  dropped  his  anchor  and  attacked  the  J^ashviUe^ 
while  the  fort  opened  fire  upon  him.  A  few  minutes  after  the 
commencement  of  the  action,  an  8-inch  shot  struck  the  pilot- 
house within  a  few  inches  of  the  Commander's  head ;  yet  no 
notice  was  taken  of  the  fire  from  the  fort.  At  the  fifth  dis- 
charo'e  the  iI/o/(^.n^^' put  a  15-inch  shell  into  the  bodv  of  the 
enemy's  vessel,  the  terrible  explosion  being  distinctly  heard 
within  the  turret.  Several  other  shells  also  hit  the  desired 
mark,  but  the  first  had  done  the  work  effectually,  and  shortly 
the  smoke  and  flames  which  enveloped  the  Sashvilh  was  the 
intelligence  for  the  Montaulcs  gunners  to  cease  firing.  By  un- 
seen means,  as  usual,  the  anchor  was  then  raised  under  the  blast 
from  McAllister,  and  Worden  retired  in  triumph  after  having 
destroyed  the  enemy's  vessel  under  his  own  fort ;  thus  demon- 
strating that  fortifications  offer  no  protection  to  wooden  vessels 
against  monitors  with  their  impregnable  turrets  and  their  nearly 
submerged,  impenetrable  hulls.  The  achievement  marks  an 
epoch  in  naval  history. 

"  In  Admiral  Porter's  attack  on  Fort  Fisher,  during  each  en- 
gagement (December  24,  1864,  and  January  15, 1865)  the  moni- 


THE  MONITOR  VERSUS  THE  BATTLE-SHIP.  59 

tors  were  stationed  in  a  direct  line  between  the  wooden  fleet 
and  the  fort.  The  monitor  guns,  it  was  evident,  were  not  nu- 
merous enougli  to  make  a  serious  impression  on  the  extensive 
lines  of  Fort  Fisher,  and  yet  their  fifteen-inch  shot  and  shells 
were  indispensable  to  destroy  bomb-proofs  and  magazines,  etc. 
The  sagacity  of  Porter  proved  equal  to  the  emergency.  lie 
found,  by  his  computations  of  distance  and  elevation,  that  the 
guns  of  his  ships  would  send  their  projectiles  just  high  enough 
to  pass  over  the  monitors,  if  placed  about  half-way  between  the 
fort  and  the  fleet.  The  turret  -  vessels  were  accordingly  as- 
signed this  dangerous  position — dangerous  to  vessels  less  shot- 
and  bomb-proof  than  monitors — as  shot  from  the  fleet  falling 
short  and  shells  prematurely  exploding  could  not  be  avoided 
another  a  spirited  and  prolonged  action.  Here  was  presented 
during  important  novelty  in  naval  tactics  resulting  from  the 
introduction  of  the  new  system." 

These  extracts  from  one  of  Ericsson's  printed  letters  give 
proof  not  only  of  the  qualities  of  the  monitors,  but  of  Ericsson's 
ability  as  a  writer.  Who  could  have  better  described  these  epi- 
sodes of  war  in  so  brief  a  compass  ? 

On  January  31,  1863,  two  Confederate  iron-clad  rams,  Chi- 
cora  and  Palmetto  State,  so  disabled  and  dispersed  the  vessels 
of  the  squadron  off  Charleston  that  a  proclamation  was  formally 
issued  by  the  Confederate  authorities  declaring  that  the  block- 
ade was  raised.  Within  a  month  the  squadron  was  strength- 
ened by  the  addition  of  four  monitors,  but  Admiral  Du  Pont,  who 
commanded,  had  no  faith  in  these  new  vessels  and  wrote  (June 
3, 1803)  to  the  Department,  announcing  that  he  could  not  depend 
upon  them  for  protection  against  the  sea-going  iron-clads  fitting 
out  in  Southern  ports. 

The  Confederates  evidently  shared  this  opinion,  for  a  fort- 
night later  they  sent  out  from  Charleston  their  iron-clad  At- 
lantaj  accompanied  by  two  excursion  steamers  filled  with  in- 
tended spectators  of  Yankee  discomfiture.  She  found  the 
monitor  Weehawken,  in  command  of  sturdy  John  Rodgers, 
ready  for  her,  and  within  fifteen  minutes  from  the  time  that 
vessel  opened  fire  the  Atlanta  had  surrendered.  Yet  this  Con- 
federate vessel  was  the  one  that  Du  Pont  chiefly  dreaded,  and  he 
described  her  as  the  best  that  the  enemy  had. 


60  LIFE   OF  JOn:N'  ERICSSON. 

Still  nnconvinced  by  this  brilliant  stroke,  Aamiral  Dii  Pont 
reported  that  the  monitors  could  not  keep  the  sea,  nor  could 
they  in  his  opinion  blockade  Charleston  nearer  than  the  harbor 
of  Noith  Edisto,  twenty-five  miles  distant.  This  want  of  faith 
in  the  vessels  under  his  control  discouraged  the  Government, 
and  Admiral  Da  Pont  was  relieved  from  duty,  greatly  to  his 
mortification  and  the  dissatisfaction  of  his  friends.  He  was 
succeeded  in  command  by  Admiral  Dahlgren  on  July  3,  1S63, 
and  on  the  10th  of  that  month  the  monitors  returned  to  the 
blockade  of  Charleston,  where  they  remained  until  the  war 
closed  on  that  coast,  in  the  middle  of  February,  1S65. 

During  this  service  under  the  fire  of  the  Charleston  bat- 
teries, the  Patajpsco  was  in  twenty-eight  engagements  without 
sufFering  serious  injury  or  the  slightest  derangement  to  her 
turret.  The  2lontauh  was  struck  two  hundred  and  fourteen 
times,  and  the  Weehawlcen  one  hundred  and  eighty-seven  times 
by  heavy  shot. 

In  the  attack  at  Mobile  Bay  it  was  left  for  the  monitor 
Manhattan  to  give  the  finishing  stroke,  with  its  fifteen-inch 
gun,  to  the  Confederate  iron-clad  ram  Tennessee^  after  Farragut 
had  engaged  her  at  the  closest  quarters  with  all  of  his  wooden 
vessels,  and  three  of  thetn  had  rammed  her  with  more  injury 
to  themselves  than  to  their  adversary.  The  Tennessee  is  de- 
scribed as  '•  the  most  formidable  vessel  of  her  class  that  ever 
carried  the  Confederate  flag,"  and  it  was  a  "  subject  of  wonder 
and  admiration  that  Southern  builders  and  seamen,  crippled 
in  every  department  of  construction  and  outfit,  could  have 
wrought  their  little  available  material  to  so  good  a  purpose.'' 
Yet  she  was  helpless  under  the  guns  of  a  monitor.  Describing 
the  effect  of  their  attack  on  the  JlanJuittan,  an  officer  of  the 
Tennessee^  Lieutenant  Wharton,  says : 

A  hideous-looking  monster  came  creeping  up  on  our  port  side, 
whose  slowly  revolving  turret  revealed  the  cavernous  depths  of  a  mam- 
moth gun. 

"  Stand  clear  of  the  port  side  !  "  I  shouted. 

A  moment  after  a  thunderous  report  shook  us  all,  while  a  blast  of 
dense,  sulphurous  smoke  covered  our  port-holes,  and  four  hundred  and 
fortr  pounds  of  iron,  impelled  by  sixty  pounds  of  powder,  admitted  day- 
light through  our  side,  where  before  it  struck  us  there  had  been  over 


THE   MONITOR   VERSUS   THE   BATTLE-SHIP.  61 

two  feet  of  solid  wood  covered  with  five  inches  of  solid  iron.  The 
Tennessee  could  drive  shot  after  shot,  and  shell  after  shell,  through 
the  sides  of  the  wooden  ships,  but  the  solid  projectiles  from  her  eight- 
inch  rifles  were  impotent  against  the  iron-clads,  whose  gunners,  from 
their  place  of  safety  and  advantage  in  the  shot-proof  turrets,  could  aim 
and  fire  with  all  the  coolness  and  security  of  participants  in  an  artillery 
target  match.* 

Some  of  the  monitors  during  the  war  were  hit  more  than 
five  hundred  times.  At  Fort  Fisher  they  laid  three  days 
under  fire,  and  from  the  first  monitor  figlit  to  the  last  but 
three  persons  were  killed  on  board  of  them,  Captain  G.  W. 
Rodgers  and  Paymaster  Woodbury  in  the  Catskill,  and  one 
man  on  the  N'ahant.  The  death  of  the  first  two  resulted  from 
a  shot  striking  the  top  of  the  pilot-house,  and  with  reference  to 
it  Ericsson  wrote  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  (August  29, 
1863) :  "  Tiie  injudicious  objections  raised  by  many  experienced 
officers  and  engineers  to  the  projection  of  the  turrets  above 
their  roofs,  I  regret  to  say  influenced  me,  or  I  would  never  have 
placed  the  top  of  the  pilot-house  flush  with  the  shell.  The  de- 
plorable accident  on  board  of  the  CatsMU  imperatively  calls 
for  an  amendment  and  resort  to  the  orginal  idea  of  putting  the 
top  some  distance  below  the  shell." 

How  many  naval  constructors  are  there  who  would  feel 
called  upon  to  apologize  because  two  men  had  been  killed  upon 
one  of  their  vessels  subjected  to  a  heavy  bombardment  from 
forts  ?  The  first  shot  from  the  fifteen-inch  gun  of  the  monitor 
WeehawJcen  prostrated  forty  men  on  the  Atlanta,  and  the 
third  shot  carried  off  the  roof  of  her  pilot-house  altogether, 
wounding  the  two  pilots,  and  stunning  the  men  at  the  wheel. 
As  Captain  Ilodgers,  who  commanded  the  Weehawlcen,  re- 
marked concerning  his  adversaries :  "  The  first  shot  took  away 
their  disposition  to  fight,  and  the  third  their  ability  to  get 
away."  In  the  attack  on  Algiers  by  Lord  Exmouth,  in  1816, 
one  vessel,  Impregnable  only  in  name,  had  150  killed  and 
wounded,  and  the  total  loss  of  the  fleet  was  141  killed  and  741 
wounded.  At  ISTavarino,  in  1827,  out  of  a  fleet  of  81  vessels 
only  1  frigate  and  15  small  vessels  were  in  a  state  ever  again 
to  put  to  sea.     The  Allies  lost  177  killed,  480  wounded,  and 

*  Scliarf's  Confederate  States  Navy,  p.  568. 


62  LIFE   OF   JOHN    ERICSSON. 

the  Turks  lost  6,000  killed.  At  Sinope  in  1S53,  the  Turkish 
fleet  was  blotted  out  of  existence  and  the  llussian  vessels  were 
seriously  crippled. 

The  Atlanta  was  the  first  vessel  of  war  to  hoist  the  flag 
adopted  by  the  Confederate  States,  and  the  intention  was  to 
christen  it  and  signalize  the  anniversary  of  the  battle  of  Bunker 
Hill,  on  which  the  engagement  was  fought,  by  a  glorious  victory. 
The  victory  was  a  signal  one,  but  not  after  the  expectation  of 
the  good  people  of  Savannah,  who  had  crowded  the  wharves  to 
bid  the  Atlanta  God-speed  when  she  left  their  port. 

Wherever  Confederate  vessels  appeared  they  fell  a  prey  to 
the  enemy — the  Merrhnac  to  the  Monitor,  the  Atlanta  to  the 
^echaioken.,  the  Tennessee  to  Rear-Admiral  Farragut's  fleet. 
The  Louisiana  and  Mississippi  with  six  or  seven  semi-iron- 
clads, disappeared  from  the  list  when  Farragut  captured  New 
Orleans  ;  one  was  destroyed  on  the  Yazoo,  and  two  on  the  Red 
River,  to  prevent  capture  by  Admiral  Porter.  The  Arkansas 
was  destroyed  by  the  Essex,  several  half-iron-clads  by  the 
flotilla  of  Acting  Rear-Admiral  Davis  at  Memphis.  The 
Cliattahoochie  was  blown  up  on  the  Appalachicola  River  and 
the  Albemarle  was  sunk  by  Lieutenant  Cushing  with  a  spar 
topedo.  All  of  these  vessels  were  on  the  same  general  plan 
and  of  the  type  to  which  the  Monitor  was  opposed.  If  they 
had  been  of  the  monitor  type  there  would  unquestionably  have 
been  a  different  story  to  tell. 

The  Galena,  one  of  the  two  iron-clads  submitted  in  compe- 
tition with  the  Monitor,  and  accepted  by  the  Government  at  the 
same  time,  was  pierced  through  and  through  by  ordinary  shot, 
driving  fragments  of  the  iron  armor  within  the  vessel,  dealing 
"  death  and  damnation  round."  The  other,  the  KeoJcuJc,  was 
speedily  penetrated  and  sunk  by  the  enemy's  fire.  In  the  at- 
tack upon  Charleston,  April  7,  1863,  as  her  commander,  A.  C. 
Rhind,  U.S.N.,  reported,  she  was  under  fire  thirty  minutes  and 
was  struck  ninety  times,  nineteen  shots  pierced  her  through,  at, 
and  below  the  water-line.  Her  turrets  were  pierced  in  many 
places.  She  was,  in  short,  completely  riddled  and  sank  the 
next  morning  when  the  sea  grew  a  little  rough. 

"  N^avy  officers  in  our  service,"  wrote  Mr.  Fox  in  1869,  "  and 
the  English  will  advocate  a  broadside  system — such  was  the 


THE   MONITOR  VERSUS   THE   BATTLE-SHIP.  63 

English  report — or  at  least  connecting  the  turrets  by  casemates, 
and  such  would  have  been  a  report  of  our  own  had  we  put  the 
monitor  system  into  their  hands.  It  arises  from  education  in 
broadside  ships  and  the  instinctive  appreciation  that  their  own 
position  will  be  shaken  if  fighting  ships  are  reduced  to  ma- 
chines, the  product  of  engineering  skill.  Porter  is  desirous  of 
having  the  satisfaction  of  building  up  a  navy  founded' upon  his 
own  ideas  and  English  precedents.  He  will  not  follow  in  the 
wake  of  those  who  preceded  him,  but  throwing  all  experience 
overboard,  even  his  own  indorsements,  he  assigns  to  the  Moni- 
tor shore  duty  and  tonnage  of  eight  hundred  tons  and  to  his  in- 
vulnerable sea  steamer  only  three  thousand  three  hundred  tons- 
He  will  learn  that  invulnerability  cannot  be  reached  in  the  latter 
tonnage  by  any  other  type  than  the  monitor.  England,  through 
her  last  ships,  draws  toward  the  monitor  precedent,  a  fighting 
machine  without  masts  and  low  freeboards,  while  we  propose 
to  take  up  with  the  earlier  cast-off  British  broadside  types.  To 
what  end  will  unstinted  vanity  lead  us  while  the  near  past  with 
its  rich  lessons  is  so  fresh  in  our  minds.  I  look  to  see  a  math, 
ernatical  demonstration  of  the  unsoundness  of  the  proposed  navy. 
In  a  monarchy,  a  navy  is  part  of  the  show  that  imposes  upon 
the  people.  In  a  republic,  it  should  be  tolerated  solely  for  its 
fighting  jpowers^  and  to  that  end  science  and  genius  should  bend 
their  efforts.  Beyond  that  it  is  useless.  We  are  about  to  swing 
off  into  a  sea  of  expenditures  for  flag-ships  and  other  pleasant 
homes,  forgetting  the  type  that  came  to  us  in  the  darkest  hour  of 
our  history  like  Minerva  fully  armed  from  the  brain  of  Jupiter." 

"  Sailors,  you  know,"  said  Mr.  Fox  in  another  letter,  "  are 
conservative  and  impatient,  slow  to  change  old  ideas  and  rest- 
less under  efforts  necessary  to  reach  perfection,  but  when  the 
hour  of  trial  comes  they  will  not  disappoint  the  just  expecta- 
tions of  the  country." 

Harvey  said  that  he  could  make  no  converts  to  his  theory 
of  the  circulation  of  the  blood  among  men  past  middle  life,  and 
a  distinguished  Harvard  professor,  of  great  scientific  attainments, 
reported  to  Ericsson  in  18G3  that  he  encountered  at  "Washing- 
ton "  the  most  unaccountable  absence  of  practical  trust  in  great 
physical  principles  which  had  not  been  ingrained  by  the  estab- 
lished modes  of  old  naval  warfare." 


64  LIFE   OF   JOnX   ERICSSON. 

"  In  order  to  please  the  several  officers  of  the  gun-boats," 
said  Captain  Ericsson,  "  I  liave  invented  and  applied  various 
contrivances,  but  in  no  instance  have  I  succeeded  in  calling  forth 
expressions  of  approbation.  [Nothing  I  have  contrived  has  so 
far  given  satisfaction  to  the  commanding  officers.  Such  hercu- 
lean labor  as  I  have  performed  in  relation  to  the  monitor  fleet 
is  not  on  record  in  the  history  of  engineering." 

Criticisms  and  complaints  he  had  in  abundance.  Some  of 
these  pointed  out  deficiencies,  to  the  correction  of  which  his  ex- 
haustless  ingenuity  was  successfully  applied  ;  some  were  the 
result  of  the  propensity  to  grumble,  chronic  in  the  navy  ; 
othei's  were  the  offspring  of  ignorant  comparison  between  the 
monitors  and  vessels  wholly  unlike  them  in  type,  and  some  can 
only  be  explained  on  the  theory  of  a  deliberate  determination 
to  get  rid  altogether  of  the  monitors  and  their  creator. 

After  the  failure  of  his  attack  upon  Fort  Sumter,  Admiral 
Du  Pont,  as  Ericsson  explained  in  a  letter  to  John  Bourne, 
March  9,  1S66,  "  to  sustain  his  reputation  induced  certain  moni- 
tor captains  to  write  long  reports  of  imaginary  defects  of  the 
monitor  system  ;  for  which  he  was  dismissed  from  active  service 
and  prevented  from  further  participation  in  the  war."  "  Du 
Pont  neither  understands  nor  appreciates  the  monitors  which 
have  performed  so  marvellously,"  wrote  Fox  (February  27, 
ISG-i).  "  He  is  of  a  wooden  age,  eminent  in  that,  but  in  an 
engineering  age  behind  the  time.  You  were  always  opposed  to 
attacking  forts,  but  Du  Pont  despised  the  vessels  and  the  brain 
that  conceived  them." 

Du  Pont  was  the  grandson  of  the  Du  Pont  de  Xemours 
who,  on  behalf  of  France,  negotiated  the  treaty  of  1783,  by 
which  England  formally  recognized  the  independence  of  the 
United  States,  and  who  was  instrumental  also  in  promoting  the 
later  treaty  that  added  the  immense  Louisiana  territory  to  our 
possessions.  De  Xemours  was  a  royalist  whose  neck  was  barely 
saved  from  the  guillotine  by  the  death  of  Robespierre.  His 
grandson,  born  in  the  same  year  with  Ericsson,  was  a  legiti- 
mate inheritor  of  the  spirit  actuating  the  Frenchmen  in  the  days 
when  ^'Aj>}'ts  vous,  messieurs  ! '*''  was  supposed  to  be  the  polite 
formula  preceding  the  commencement  of  a  battle.  There  was 
no  more  accomplished  officer  in  our  naval  service  than  Admiral 


THE   MONITOR  VERSUS   THE   BATTLE-SHIP.  65 

Dii  Pont,  no  man  of  nobler  personality,  but  he  was  the  very 
incarnation  of  naval  exclusiveness  and  prejudice  against  inno- 
vation, and  the  introduction  of  monitors  into  our  navy  gave 
a  shock  to  his  sensibilities  from  which  they  never  recovered. 
It  may  be  that  he  was  expected  to  accomplish  with  them  more 
than  was  possible  in  his  attack  upon  Charleston,  but  he  was 
disposed  to  exaggerate  their  deficiencies  and  to  criticise  them 
in  a  spirit  of  unfriendliness  that  arrayed  against  him  the  active 
hostility  of  their  champions. 

After  the  first  attack  of  the  naval  forces  under  Admiral  Du 
Pont  upon  the  Confederate  batteries  defending  the  harbor  of 
Charleston,  S.  C,  a  most  elaborate  report  upon  the  defects  of 
the  monitors  was  prepared  by  the  Admiral.  In  spite  of  this, 
the  chief  engineer  of  the  monitor  fleet  reported  that  they  were 
ready  for  action  at  nine  o'clock  upon  the  morning  following 
their  experience  of  an  exposure  for  nearly  an  hour  to  the  con- 
centrated fire  of  more  than  one  hundred  heavy  guns,  some  of 
the  vessels  being  struck  more  than  fifty  times.  Most  of  the 
deficiencies  pointed  out  by  the  five  captains  whose  reports  were 
transmitted  by  Du  Pont  were  such  as  a  man  of  Ericsson's  in- 
genuity could  devise  means  to  correct ;  the  others  he  answered 
with  argument  and  sarcasm.  To  the  complaint  of  want  of  ven- 
tilation he  replied  that  the  introduction  of  a  cold-air  pipe  could 
soon  correct  this,  adding  "  the  writer's  experience  in  drilling 
men  in  gymnastic  exercises  in  cramped  quarters  justifies  him 
in  asserting  that  with  ample  ventilation  and  proper  treatment, 
the  berth-deck  of  a  monitor  may  be  rendered  the  nursery  of 
strong  and  health}^  men." 

In  support  of  this  statement  the  Surgeon-General  of  the 
Kavy,  in  his  annual  report  of  1864,  stated  that  an  examination 
of  the  sick  reports,  covering  a  period  of  over  thirty  months, 
showed  that,  so  far  from  being  unhealthy,  there  was  less  sick- 
ness on  board  the  monitor  vessels  than  on  the  same  number  of 
wooden  ships  with  an  equal  number  of  men,  and  in  similarly  ex- 
posed positions.  From  the  facts  contained  in  the  report,  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  drew  the  conclusion  that  "  no  wooden 
vessels  in  any  squadron  throughout  the  world  could  show  an 
equal  immunity  from  disease." 

There  is  something  oppressive  to  the  imagination,  unques- 
VOL.  XL— 5 


66  UFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSOX. 

tionably,  in  an  under-water  residence,  but  it  is  not  necessarily 
more  unhealthy  than  on  the  exposed  deck  of  an  ordinary  sea- 
going vessel.  In  the  larger  monitors,  too,  a  promenade  was 
provided  on  top  of  the  turret,  one  hundred  feet  in  circumfer- 
ence, and  a  hurricane  deck,  affording  room  for  exercise  and 
recreation.  The  first  monitor  was  unquestionably  a  most  un- 
desirable place  for  permanent  residence;  in  the  smaller  Pas- 
saic class,  where  some  improvement  was  made,  and  of  the 
Dictator  there  was  no  complaint.  It  would  certainly  compare 
most  favorably  with  modern  iron-clads,  where  insufficient  ven- 
tilation is  a  great  cause  of  complaint,  and  the  utmost  effort  is 
required  to  keep  the  stokers  up  to  their  work  in  a  fire-room 
having  a  temperature  of  168°. 

Lack  of  sea-going  qualities  was  another  of  the  criticisms  of 
the  five  monitor  captains.  As  Captain  (afterward  Admiral) 
Rodgers  was  one  of  these  critics,  Ericsson  said  in  reply:  "Cap- 
tain John  Rodgers  not  long  ago  expressed  the  ©pinion  of  the 
monitors  as  follows:  'During  the  heaviest  of  the  gale  I  stood 
upon  the  turret  and  admired  the  behavior  of  the  vessel.  She 
rose  and  fell  to  the  waves,  and  I  concluded  then  that  the  mon- 
itor form  had  great  sea-going  qualities.  If  leaks  were  prevented 
no  hurricane  could  injure  her.'  Such  was  the  opinion  of  the 
cool,  intrepid  sailor  at  a  moment  when,  tossed  on  the  turbulent 
sea,  he  had  all  the  jacts  before  him.  ^^'hy  his  opinion  should 
be  changed  by  his  experience  on  the  placid  waters  of  the  Edisto 
I  will  not  inquire." 

In  the  report  concerning  the  behavior  of  the  Weehawken  in 
a  gale,  from  which  Ericsson  quoted,  John  Rodgers  stated  that 
he  had  cut  loose  from  the  vessel  towing  him  to  save  her,  and 
that  the  performance  of  the  monitor  in  a  sea  "was  admi- 
rable." The  sea  "was  about  thirty  feet  high,"  he  said,  but 
"the  behavior  of  the  vessel  was  easy,  buoyant,  and  indicative 
of  thorough  safety.  Her  movements  filled  me  with  admira- 
tion. I  saw  in  them  everything  to  admire,  nothing  to  improve. 
The  waves  rolled  furiously  across  the  deck.  Instead  of  spend- 
ing their  force  against  the  side,  as  in  an  ordinary  vessel,  they 
swept  harmlessly  by.  A  plate  of  flat  iron  two  inches  thick  and 
weighing  some  three  thousand  three  hundred  pounds  was 
broken  from  its  lashings  upon  the  deck,  and  transported  about 


THE  MONITOR  VERSUS  THE   BATTLE-SHIP.  67 

forty  feet  to  some  side  stanchions,  which  arrested  its  course 
overboard,  and  to  which  it  was  secured." 

Could  testimony  be  more  complete  than  this  ?  Does  it  not 
prove  all  that  Ericsson  claimed  as  to  the  peculiar  seaworthiness 
of  the  monitors,  so  long  as  the  openings  into  the  hull  were 
kept  closed,  as  he  intended  they  should  be?  Speaking  of  the 
terrible  gale  in  which  the  brave  Rodgers  refused  to  make  a 
harbor  with  his  monitor,  ]\Ir.  Fox  said:  "I  frankly  confess 
that  I  did  not  believe  an  iron-clad  could  live  through  it. 
Thanks  to  Rodgers,  the  country  breathes  freer  and  you  are 
sustained.  I  have  nothing  to  add  to  the  pleasure  that  must 
fill  your  heart." 

Ericsson  estimated  that  the  Dictator  could  carry  five  hun- 
dred tons  of  water,  or  other  additional  weight  to  that  amount, 
before  she  would  sink.  As  less  than  two  hundred  tons  of  wa- 
ter, entering  the  ordinary  screw  steamers,  of  the  size  of  the 
Dictator,  would  flood  the  furnaces  and,  by  putting  out  the  fires, 
cause  fatal  disaster,  he  argued  that  the  supposed  great  risk  of 
the  monitors  is  in  reality  shared  by  all  sea-going  steamers. 
Again,  the  safety  of  an  ocean  steamer  might  be  seriously  en- 
dangered by  shipping  heavy  seas,  as  their  deck  arrangements 
are  ill  prepared  to  encounter  the  risk;  the  monitor  deck,  on 
the  contrary,  is  designed  to  be  washed  by  the  waves,  and  is 
tight  and  strong  as  the  vessel's  bottom. 

"The  monitors  have  not  only  proved  sea  boats,"  wrote 
Ericsson  (letter  to  Bourne,  November  3,  1863),  "but  they  are 
life-boats  on  a  large  scale  which  cannot  perish  in  any  hurricane 
or  raging  sea,  provided  there  is  water  under  their  bottoms  and 
their  deck  openings  are  properly  closed.  The  sinking  of  the 
original  Monitor  was  caused  by  an  inexperienced  commander 
raising  her  turret  before  going  to  sea,  and  then  putting  oakum 
under  its  base.  The  turret  on  being  let  down  rested  on  a  few 
thick  lumps,  the  sea  washing  out  the  rest  and  producing  a  leak 
of  some  fifty  feet  in  extent,  admitting  more  water  than  the 
pumps  could  take  away.  But  the  vessel  did  not  go  down  in  an 
instant,  as  reported,  for  it  took  full  four  hours  before  the  stream 
of  water  under  the  turret  overpowered  the  pumps.  The  moni- 
tor Weehau'ken  went  down  at  anchor  in  Charleston  harbor 
during  a  gale,  the  forward  deck-hatch  having  been  left  open 


68  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

and  remaining  so  for  fifteen  minutes,  while  the  sea  made  a  clean 
breach  over  the  vessel."  "We  have  now  positive  evidence," 
he  said,  "  in  a  letter  written  January  14,  1SC5,  that  both  seams 
and  rivets  of  that  vessel  remained  as  sound  as  in  the  Passaic.^^ 

"  Ordinary  vessels,"  he  said  again,  "  roll  because  the  wave 
on  the  weather  side,  impeded  by  the  hull,  rises  to  a  greater 
altitude  than  on  the  opposite  side.  In  the  case  of  the  Monitor 
the  wave  can  only  rise  sixteen  inches,  after  which  it  mounts 
the  deck,  and  by  force  of  gravity  bears  down  the  hull  and 
checks  the  tendency  to  roll.  The  projecting  side  armor,  from 
obvious  reasons,  also  assists  powerfully  in  preventing  rolling. 
The  pitching,  from  the  same  cause,  is  less  in  the  monitors  than 
in  other  vessels." 

"  As  to  ventilation,"  said  Ericsson,  "  old  sailors  who  have 
been  in  these  vessels  night  and  day  for  two  years  have  assured 
me  that  no  other  vessels  of  war  can  compare  with  them.  It 
must  be  so,  since  the  air  before  entering  the  boiler-room  sweeps 
through  the  quarters.  To  assume  that  the  means  of  ventila- 
tion fail,  is  to  assert  that  the  vessels  have  ceased  to  move,  there 
being  no  sails  and  no  air  for  the  boiler  furnaces  excepting  what 
is  drawn  in  by  centrifugal  blowers  through  the  turret,  or 
through  impregnable  air-trunks  on  deck.  Ladies  who  have 
made  short  passages  in  the  large  class  of  sea-going  monitors 
have  observed  that  the  air,  unlike  that  of  any  other  class  of 
vessels,  is  perfectly  pure,  without  the  slightest  odor  such  as  the 
best  passenger  ships  are  never  free  from. 

'•  Excepting  when  the  vessel  is  prepared  for  action,  hatches 
over  the  berth-deck  are  covered  with  brass  plates  perforated 
with  several  hundred  holes  in  which  glass  globes  are  inserted, 
throwing  a  strong  light.  The  oflBcers  and  men  therefore  can 
read  and  write  with  facility  during  the  daytime.  .  .  . 
Those  who  have  been  present  during  the  dancing  and  music  on 
the  Dictatof'''s  berth-deck  at  sea,  and  witnessed  the  comfort  and 
delight  of  the  men,  cannot  read  without  indignation  the  false- 
hoods propagated  by  the  London  Times  respecting  the  monitor 
iron-clads. 

"  I  will  not  detain  you  by  a  lengthened  argument  showing 
why  houses  could  not  be  erected  on  the  decks  of  the  monitors. 
They  are  made  only  to  fight,  and  their  guns  must  sweep  tlie 


THE  MONITOR  VEESUS  THE  BATTLE-SHIP.  69 

entire  horizon.  The  Passaic,  for  instance,  engaged  the  enemy's 
batteries  twenty-eight  times,  and  after  each  contest  had  to  run 
into  open  water,  frequently  during  bitter  cold  weather  and 
heavy  sea.  What  would  become  of  the  crew,  had  their  quarters 
on  such  occasions  been  knocked  away  ?  To  prevent  blockade 
running  at  Charleston,  a  monitor  had  in  turn  to  do  picket  duty 
every  night  at  a  point  that  was  within  easy  range  oijlve  forts ! 
Houses  on  deck  would  not  long  have  been  left  standing  by  our 
enemy,  while,  owing  to  the  impregnable  nature  of  the  turrets 
and  the  narrow  line  of  the  almost  submerged  hulls,  the  Confed- 
erates deemed  it  waste  of  powder  and  shot  to  fire.  Again,  a 
house  built  on  deck  flush  with  the  sides,  would  produce  heavy 
rolling,  as  the  rising  sea  on  the  weather  side  would  tilt  the  hull. 
With  a  clear  and  almost  submerged  deck,  the  effect  of  the  ris- 
ing sea  is  to  overflow  it,  and  thus  bear  down  and  steady  the 
hull.  Bottles  and  inkstands  on  board  of  the  monitors  are  left 
without  support  in  all  weathers," 

Ericsson  was  especially  severe  upon  Captain  Percival  Dray- 
ton, who,  as  he  said  in  a  letter  to  Secretary  "Welles,  "  seemed 
bent  on  prejudicing  everybody  against  the  vessel  under  his 
command.  I  will  try  to  believe,"  he  added,  "  that  it  is  7ne- 
chardcal  difficulties  alone  that  appall  him."  Captain  Drayton 
had  punctured  Ericsson  in  a  tender  spot  by  declaring  that  he 
was  guilty  of  an  error  "  in  calculation  "  in  the  trim  of  the  Pas- 
saic. In  reference  to  this  Ericsson  said  :  "  1  used  all  my  influ- 
ence to  have  it  corrected.  Mr.  Stimers,  in  reply  to  my  earnest 
representations  on  the  subject,  told  me  that  Captain  Drayton 
preferred  it  and  liked  to  have  the  bow  high  out  of  water.  Much 
useless  weight  was  put  into  the  Passaic,  against  my  remon- 
strance, to  please  the  commander.  Unfortunately,  the  various 
useless  fixtures  have  been  copied  into  the  rest  of  the  vessels." 

Captain  Drayton  had  reported  that  the  monitors  were  liable 
to  spring  a  leak  because  of  their  peculiar  construction.  To  this 
Ericsson  replied  : 

Captain  Drayton's  several  reports  show  how  necessary  it  is  to  re- 
ceive with  caution  the  statements  made  and  inferences  drawn,  even  by 
experienced  and  impartial  seamen,  in  relation  to  our  new  system.  Cap- 
tain Drayton  reported  to  you  January  1st,  that  "the  sea  was  gradually 
making  large  openings  through_the  forward  armor  projection,  through 


70  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

which  the  water  poured  in  n  large  stream."  He  added  confidently  "that 
a  few  hours  of  heavy  sea  would  go  far  to  tear  the  whole  thing  off." 
Without  having  during  the  interval  lifted  a  hammer  or  driven  a  rivet, 
the  same  officer  reported,  January  22d,  that  although  during  two  days  and 
one  night,  "it  blew  so  very  hard  that  the  Passaic  could  not  make  the 
light-vessel,"  yet  "there  was  no  difficulty  in  keeping  her  free  with  the 
bilge-pump  (only  five  inches  in  diameter)  and  one  donkey-pump  work- 
ing two  hours  out  of  every  four.  Comment  on  the  discrepancy  of  Caf>- 
tain  Drayton's  reports  of  January  1st  and  22d  is  unnecessary.  It  is 
important,  however,  to  notice  the  reported  expedient  of  removing  the 
ballast  which  he  says  "  had  most  inconsiderately  been  placed  inside  of 
the  false  bow."  Captain  Drayton  means  the  ballast  placed  on  the  forward 
overhang.  In  a  former  report  Captain  Drayton  described  the  fearful 
action  of  the  sea  under  this  overhang,  which  tended  to  "tear  it  up."  The 
weight  which  I  have  directed  to  be  stowed  in  the  overhang  to  counter- 
act this  upward  force  and  prevent  the  projecting  bow  from  being  hfted 
up,  the  report  of  January  22d  informs  you,  was  as  a  necessary  measure 
of  "precaution"  removed.     .     .     . 

Without  intending  any  disrespect  to  the  commander  of  the  Pas- 
saic, I  cannot  abstain  from  calling  your  attention  to  his  singular  custom 
of  drawing  on  the  imagination  in  order  to  show  what  might  have  hap- 
pened under  certain  contingencies,  and  what  dire  consequences  would 
have  resulted  from  occurrences  which  happily  did  not  take  place. 

The  result  of  the  observations  made  by  Captains  Rodgers  and 
Worden  are  stated  with  much  precision,  but  the  opinion  expressed  by 
these  officers,  that  their  vessels  were  subjected  to  severe  strain,  is  un- 
supported by  practical  evidence.  So  far,  not  a  rivet  has  started  nor  a 
seam  opened.  No  working  has  been  observed  at  any  point  within  the 
vessel.  The  absence  of  buoyancy  in  a  heavy  sea,  supposed  by  Captain 
Worden  to  be  a  defect,  is  in  reality  a  favorable  feature.  It  is  in  heavy 
weather  that  ordinary  ships  suffer  most  from  the  excessive  and  violent 
movements  caused  by  the  sudden  rise  and  fall  with  the  sea.  Under 
similar  circumstances  the  monitor  craft  becomes  partially  immersed  by 
the  waves  which  pa^s  over  its  decks,  instead  of  violently  tossing  it  up  and 
down  during  their  oscillation.  Without  disparaging  the  judgment  of 
the  two  commanders  last  alluded  to,  I  would  suggest  that  their  impres- 
sions regarding  great  strain  on  the  vessel  has  been  produced  by  the 
strong  sound  which  accompanies  the  lashing  of  the  sea  against  an  iron 
hull.  An  observer  accustomed  only  to  the  light,  dull  sound  of  a  wooden 
vessel  is  startled  by  the  sharp,  harsh  ring  of  the  metallic  hull,  and 
imagines  serious  strain  where  in  fact  nothing  but  a  very  natural  and 
harmless  sound  occurs.     .     .     . 

A  still  more  conclusive  answer  to  these  criticisms  followed 
an  examination  of  the  Passaic,  after  she  had  been  put  on  the 
marine  railway  at  Hunter's  Point.     Not  a  single  rivet  had  been 


THE   MONITOR  VERSUS  THE   BATTLE-SHIP.  71 

started,  nor  a  single  joint  opened  at  any  point  where  the  side- 
armor  shelf  or  end  projections  join  the  hull.  All  was  found 
firm  and  solid.  "It  seldom  happens,"  wrote  Ericsson  triumph- 
antly to  Secretary  Welles,  "that  erroneous  statements,  pro- 
mulgated officially,  receive  such  positive  contradiction  as  the 
actual  state  of  the  Passaic  gives  to  Captain  Drayton's  report. 
The  perfect  state  of  the  Passaic's  hull  furnishes  the  best  evi- 
dence in  support  of  my  theory  that,  owing  to  their  almost  entire 
submersion,  the  strain  on  monitor  vessels,  even  during  a  gale,  is 
quite  moderate.  Nautical  science  teaches  that  submerged  bod- 
ies are  but  little  affected  by  the  violence  of  the  waves.  The 
frail  raft  drifts  unharmed  with  the  sea,  while  the  top-hamper, 
the  iron-bound  masts  of  a  first-class  ship  are  torn  to  splinters. 
The  nautical  student  knows  that  the  actual  progress,  the  on- 
ward movement  of  the  sea  during  a  gale,  is  but  moderate,  and 
he  knows  also  that  at  a  small  depth  below  the  surface  the 
water  is  stationary,  and  that  still  lower  down  its  motion  is  retro- 
grade to  the  direction  of  the  wind." 

Other  officers  who  could  not  conquer  their  preference  for 
"wooden  vessels  and  shell  guns"  received  some  elementary  in- 
struction from  Ericsson  on  the  requirements  of  their  profession. 
This  they  naturally  did  not  relish.  Some  of  them  were  in- 
formed that  their  elaborate  criticisms  of  a  vessel  they  did  not 
understand  did  not  convey  "a  single  new  idea,  nor  develop  a 
single  new  fact,"  which,  however  true,  was  at  least  not  palata- 
ble. So  there  was  a  strong  professional  sentiment  united  in 
opposition  to  this  "Daniel  come  to  judgment."  One  of  the 
fears  expressed  was  that  the  pilot-house  would  be  upset  by 
the  impact  of  a  shot.  This  was  answered  in  a  letter  showing 
the  relation  between  the  inertia  to  be  overcome,  and  the  blow 
of  a  projectile  which,  on  striking,  would  have  its  momentum 
stopped  in  the  6000th  part  of  a  second. 

The  management  of  some  of  the  engineers  upon  whose  skill 
the  reputation  of  his  monitors  in  a  measure  depended,  was  even 
more  disturbing  to  Ericsson's  equanimity,  and  he  recorded  a 
most  vigorous  protest  in  a  private  letter  to  his  friend  Fox  (De- 
cember 3,  1862),  saying: 

I  earnestly  beg  of  you  to  instruct  the  Chief  Engineer  of  the  Navy  to 
send  us  men  fit  to  run  the  engines  of  the  iron-clads,  or  the  country  will 


72  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

soon  witness  disaster  little  anticipated .  To  intrust  the  national  vessels  to 
snch  shockingly  ignorant  and  incapable  young  men  as  the  so-called  en- 
gineers of  the  Fdssaic  is  criminal.  You  must  not  feel  offended  at  my 
remarks,  the  occasion  demands  candor  on  my  jiart.  The  poor  young 
men  exhibited  such  lamentable  ignorance  during  the  construction  of 
the  engines  as  to  excite  the  contempt  of  our  workmen.  Two  of  our 
foremen  formally  called  upon  me  with  a  respectful  remonstrance  against 
the  engines  and  boilers  being  put  under  the  care  of  these  young  men, 
asserting  in  the  most  positive  terms  that  they  would  "  blow  up  the 
boilers  before  getting  to  Hampton  Roads."  I  will  merely  add  that,  but 
for  the  enormous  strength  of  the  decks  of  the  iron-clads  to  resist  the 
upward  pressure  of  the  tops  of  the  boilers,  there  would  be  no  Passaic 
now,  and  no  one  to  tell  how  it  happened. 

The  engineer  of  the  2fo)itauk  was  no  better.  "It  would 
hardlv  seem  credible,  yet  the  engineer  has  been  observed  to 
blow  off  the  boilers  under  a  pressure  of  thirty  pounds,  and  at 
once  permit  cold  water  from  the  sea  to  return,  in  order,  it 
would  appear,  to  cool  the  boiler  quickly.  Again,  he  has  been 
observed  to  turn  steam  of  full  pressure  from  one  boiler  in  op- 
eration into  the  other  not  in  operation,  but  filled  with  cold 
water.  In  either  case  the  resulting  unequal  temperature  of  top 
and  bottom  of  boiler  is  sufficient  to  strain  the  joints  and  crack 
the  plates,  and  cause  utter  destruction  to  the  boiler." 

Of  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Steam  Engineering  at  this 
time,  Ericsson  wrote  to  Bourne  l^May  15,  ISGG):  '*  This  person, 
who  is  utterly  devoid  of  constructive  skill,  not  an  engineer  from 
the  start ;  smart  as  a  writer  and  compiler,  and  an  unmitigated 
,  .  .  is  and  has  been  my  persecutor  for  twenty  years.  But 
I  am  happy  to  say  he  has  not  been  able  to  hurt  me,  and  that 
notwithstanding  his  high  position  he  has  not  been  able  to  pre- 
vent my  constructing  the  engines  of  the  entire  monitor  fleet  now 
afloat,  excepting  the  Miantonomoh  and  Tonawanda^  into  whicli 
he  was  ordered  to  put  engines  to  compete  with  the  Monadnoch 
class.  lie  was  beaten,  although,  contrary  to  instructions,  he 
put  in  twenty  per  cent,  more  power  than  I  had  applied.  Hav- 
ing flrst,  let  me  observe,  caused  me  to  be  restricted  to  smaller 
engines  than  I  had  proposed." 

In  the  case  of  the  Monadiwelc,  referred  to  here,  Ericsson  being 
ordered  to  construct  an  engine  in  competition  with  the  Bureau 
engines,  anxious  for  the  best  result,  offered  to  increase  its  size 


THE   MONITOR  VERSUS   THE  BATTLE-SHIP.  73 

at  his  own  expense.  He  was  refused  permission,  on  the  plea 
that  his  cylinders  could  not  be  made  larger  than  those  of  the 
Bureau  engines,  which,  as  he  charged,  were  secretly  enlarged. 
Kow  that  engines  are  using  triple  and  even  quadruple  expan- 
sion, it  is  well  to  remember  that  the  Bureau  chief,  contrary 
to  the  advanced  practice  even  at  that  time,  insisted,  upon  the 
strength  of  a  misleading  experiment,  in  declining  to  use  ex- 
pansion. "  Wilfully  shutting  his  eyes  to  the  work  of  improve- 
ment going  on  daily  in  England  and  France,"  as  a  leading 
English  authority  declared  (London  Mechanical  Magazine^ 
January,  1864),  "  and  with  a  temerity  almost  without  a  parallel, 
staking  the  future  of  a  great  navy  and  an  enormous  sum  of 
money  on  the  truthfulness  of  a  simple  obscure  experiment, 
bearing  but  a  remote  analogy  in  its  conditions  to  those  under 
which  steam  should  properly  be  employed.  It  is  as  though  the 
American  engineering  world  had  retrograded  the  third  part  of 
a  century." 

"  The  idea  of  denying  the  value  of  expansion,"  said  another 
authority,  the  London  Engineer^  "  in  the  face  of  proved  facts 
innumerable,  is  transcendently  ridiculous.  The  fact  that  such 
a  belief  should  be  supported  by  a  great  naval  power  is  almost 
incredible." 

Incredible  as  it  seemed  then,  and  still  more  incredible  as  it 
appears  now,  it  was  true,  and  Ericsson  was  compelled  to  submit 
his  engineering  conceptions  to  the  criticism  of  a  man  so  per- 
versely misleading  the  authorities  of  the  Xavy  Department,  in 
so  important  a  matter  as  the  motive  power  of  the  vessels  upon 
whose  efficiency  everything  depended. 

Fortunately  for  him,  he  was  not  obliged  to  approach  the 
heads  of  the  Xavy  Department  through  their  bureau  chiefs.  He 
had  their  full  confidence,  and  was  always  admitted  to  direct  ac- 
cess, and  his  thorough  mastery  of  the  subjects  he  discussed,  his 
clear  and  forcible  way  of  presenting  his  views,  were  very  con- 
vincing. He  was  a  master  of  expression,  and  there  is  not  a  line 
in  all  of  his  numerous  letters  on  professional  subjects  that  could 
not  be  readily  understood  by  anyone  who  has  learned  the  four 
primary  rules  of  arithmetic.  He  had  a  contempt  for  displays  of 
learning  which  depended  upon  obscurity  of  statement,  and  the 
unnecessary  exhibition  of  mathematical  formulas,  though  few 


74  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

had  a  more  complete  knowledge  of  them  than  he.  His  own  con- 
ceptions were  so  exact  that  he  had  no  difficuhy  in  conveying 
them  to  others,  whether  they  were  accepted  or  not;  and  having 
a  thorough  control  of  English  expression,  his  thought  flowed  as 
clearly  as  a  limpid  mountain  stream,  even  when  he  discussed 
technical  questions. 

The  necessity  which  arose  during  the  war  for  keeping  vessels 
in  motion  while  taking  soundings,  to  lessen  their  exposure  to 
the  fire  of  hostile  batteries,  directed  attention  to  the  sounding 
instrument  Ericsson  and  Ogden  had  invented  in  1838.  It  was 
claimed  for  this  that  it  would  take  soundings  "irrespective  of 
the  length  of  the  lead  line;"  meaning,  of  course,  that  the 
record  was  made  upon  the  lead  itself,  and  not  by  calculating  the 
amount  of  line  paid  out.  A  naval  officer,  to  whom  the  instru- 
ment was  entrusted  for  experiment,  seems  to  have  interpreted 
the  statement  more  literally,  and  reported  that  it  was  useless 
because  it  would  not  register  with  a  line  so  short  that  the  lead 
was  merely  towed  behind  the  vessel  without  reaching  bottom. 
WTien  this  was  reported  to  him,  Ericsson  responded  with  a 
vigorous  letter,  declaring  that  "the  illiberal  manner  in  which 
the  trial  had  been  conducted  would  place  the  name  of  the 
present  commander  of  the  Passaic  side  by  side  with  those 
who  denounced  the  loom,  the  steamer,  the  railroad,  and  the 
telegraph."  This  was  treatment  usually  awaiting  new  devices. 
One  who  can  neither  build  nor  manage  a  locomotive  can  easily 
throw  it  off  the  track,  and  men  who  are  incapable  of  originat- 
ing anything  else  often  have  a  great  capacity  for  originating 
doubts. 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 

FOREIGN   RECOGNITION. 

Foreign  Demand  for  Monitors. — The  Miantonomoh  Crosses  the  Atlantic. 
— Her  Behavior  at  Sea. — Correspondence  with  the  British  Admiral- 
ty.— England's  Fleets  again  Made  Obsolete  by  Ericsson. — Ruskin's 
Opinion  of  Ships  of  the  Line. — England's  Mistaken  Policy  toward 
the  United  States. 

AS  soon  as  the  news  of  the  success  of  the  Monitor  had  gone 
abroad,  applications  came  to  Ericsson  for  his  assistance 
in  building  similar  vessels  for  foreign  powers.  The  month  fol- 
lowing the  battle  in  Hampton  Roads,  a  New  York  business 
house  asked  terms  for  one  or  more  monitors,  "to  be  delivered 
in  the  Mediterranean."  Another  concern  proposed  to  pay 
$10,000  for  the  plans  of  each  vessel  they  might  contract  to 
build  for  "any  European  power."  The  Secretary  of  State, 
Mr.  Seward,  asked  that  the  Danish  Minister  be  provided  with 
drawings  and  specifications  for  two  monitors,  and  these  were 
furnished,  with  an  offer  to  build  the  vessels  for  $400,000  each, 
the  price  charged  for  the  Passaic  class,  of  which  they  were  to 
be  copies.  But  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  not  unreasonably 
objected,  "for  the  reason  that  other  governments  had  demanded 
similar  concessions,  with  which  it  was  not  considered  conven- 
ient to  comply."  So  the  specifications  were  not  sent  to  Copen- 
hagen. 

On  June  23,  1862,  Ericsson  offered  to  construct  for  the 
Chilian  Government  a  monitor  precisely  like  the  five  he  was 
then  building  for  the  United  States,  and  for  the  same  price, 
viz.,  8400,000  in  United  States  currency.  The  vessel  was  to  be 
ready  in  six  months,  and  to  make  nine  knots  speed.  A  sim- 
ilar offer  was  made  to  the  Peruvian  Government,  with  an  in- 
crease of  price  to  $450,000,  the  Government  having  meantime 
imposed  a  tax  of  three  per  cent,  on  all  contracts.    It  was  stipu- 

75 


76  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

lated  that  the  monitors  should  be  built  and  then  taken  to  pieces 
for  transportation  in  sailing  vessels,  and  this  was  inadmissible. 
The  requirement  was  at  first  acceded  to,  and  then,  "  on  mature 
reflection,"  the  order  was  declined. 

The  Swedes  and  Norwegians  also  wanted  monitors,  but  it 
was  not  until  1866  that  the  Swedes  were  able  to  test  the  first 
of  the  fleet  of  vessels  built  after  Ericsson's  plans.  On  this  the 
name  of  John  EHcsson  was  bestowed  by  King  Charles  XV., 
and  she  was  armed  with  two  fifteen-inch  American  guns,  pre- 
sented to  Sweden  by  her  absent  son,  at  a  cost  to  him  of  $14,- 
200,  guns  of  the  same  calibre  being  cast  in  Sweden  for  the  rest 
of  the  fleet.  The  first  appearance  of  this  aggressive  nonde- 
script at  Stockholm  "  delighted  the  patriotic  Scandinavians  al- 
most to  frenzy,  as  affording  effective  means  of  keeping  away 
hostile  war  ships  carrying  Russian  intruders." 

The  first  Norwegian  and  three  Swedish  monitors  went  upon 
a  cruise  together.  Upon  their  return  an  officer  of  the  Norwe- 
gian navy  wrote  to  Ericsson,  September  17, 1867,  saying: 

I  feel  it  a  pleasant  duty  to  inform  you,  that  this  great  invention  of 
yonrs  has  here  also  fought  its  wav  up  to  that  position  of  acknowledged 
pre-eminence  which  can  be  attained  only  by  inventions  based  on  true 
principles.  You  have  thus  the  satisfaction,  denied  to  many  great  men, 
of  being  justly  appreciated  by  the  world  while  you  are  yet  in  full  vigor 
of  life.  Honor  to  him  who  has  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  smaller 
states  a  weapon  with  which  they  can  successfully  defend  themselves 
against  the  aggression  of  stronger  nations  ! 

It  was  not  the  smaller  states  alone  that  were  to  enjoy  the 
results  of  Ericsson's  labors.  Plans  of  the  monitors  were  fur- 
nished to  Russia  from  "Washington,  and  ten  monitors  were  in- 
cluded in  the  iron-clad  fleet  created  in  1862-64  by  Admiral 
Crabbe,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Grand  Duke  Constantine. 
These  were  built  from  copies  of  the  drawings  prepared  for  the 
American  monitors.  AVith  them  the  Grand  Duke  Constantine 
paid  a  visit  to  the  King  of  Sweden,  to  show  him  that  Ericsson's 
ideas  had  not  affected  the  relative  status  of  nations. 

In  April,  1866,  universal  attention  was  directed  to  Russia 
by  an  attempt  made  upon  the  life  of  the  Czar,  Alexander  II., 
by  one  of  the  Nihilist  conspirators.     Remembering  the  cordial 


FOREIGN  EECOGNITION.  77 

good-will  shown  to  the  United  States  by  Russia  during  the  pe- 
riod of  national  trial,  when  public  sentiment  was  most  sensitive 
to  sympathy  or  criticism,  it  was  resolved  that  something  more 
was  due  to  this  friendly  power  than  a  mere  perfunctory  expres- 
sion of  satisfaction  at  the  failure  of  the  conspiracy  against  her 
peace.  Congress  passed  a  joint  resolution  expressing  the  re- 
gret at  the  attempt  made  on  the  life  of  the  Russian  ruler,  and 
to  give  added  significance  to  this  token  of  good-will,  it  was 
resolved  to  send  the  resolutions  to  Russia  by  a  special  envoy 
in  a  national  vessel. 

For  this  mission  Congress  selected  Ericsson's  friend,  the 
Assistant  Secretary  of  the  JSlavy,  Gustavus  Vasa  Fox.  Mr. 
Fox  determined  to  avail  himself  of  this  occasion  to  test  the 
qualities  of  the  monitors,  as  he  had  still  the  most  unlimited 
faith  in  these  "  marvellous  vessels,"  as  he  was  accustomed  to 
call  them.  With  reference  to  his  proposed  visit,  Mr.  Fox  wrote 
to  Ericsson  (April  23,  1866),  saying: 

The  country  never  can  and  never  will  do  you  justice  pecuniarily  for 
the  inventions  which  have  been  so  useful,  and  which  have  realized  the 
creations  of  imagination,  and  which  are  the  results  of  genius  in  com- 
parison with  other  systems  which  are  born  of  labor  and  art  and  long 
study.  Your  reward  cannot  be  counted  in  gold  and  silver,  or  income  ;  it 
is  immortality  and  your  own  happiness  at  success.  Nevertheless,  you 
will,  I  trust  most  sincerely,  have  all  you  desire  here  in  this  life.  I 
think  I  have  rendered  the  state  some  service  in  the  last  five  years,  with 
great  opposition  to  encounter  and  radical  changes  to  make  while  a 
great  war  was  in  progress.  I  commanded  the  operations  of  the  navy  as 
much  as  Halleck  did  the  army,  and  always  with  success ;  yet  Congress 
reduced  my  pay  from  84,000  to  83,500  before  the  war  closed,  and  I  leave 
next  month  with  not  money  enough  to  get  home  to  Portsmouth,  N.  H. 
I  do  not  complain  ;  I  am  perfectly  happy,  and  I  would  not  exchange  the 
victories  we  have  won  over  all  our  enemies  for  any  wealth.  What  aid 
and  assistance  your  brain  has  been  to  us  I  have  publicly  declared  upon 
all  occasions,  and  I  will  teach  them  yet,  in  Europe,  what  they  fail  gen- 
erally to  comprehend,  the  monitor.  That  done,  I  shall  take  leave  of  all 
my  studies  and  experiences  for  the  purpose  of  making  money  before  old 
age  comes.  I  shall  resign  before  I  go  to  Europe  and  go  out  as  a  Com- 
missioner of  the  Government  to  visit  dock-yards,  etc.,  so  as  to  cover  my 
expenses.  I  need  not  assure  you  how  confidently  I  believe  that  the 
raft  principle  will  prevail  for  iron-clads,  and  I  should  like  to  see  it 
tried  for  passenger  steamers.  Tlie  victory  has  come  to  you  at  last 
through  the  trials  all  must  go  through. 


78  UFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

Referring  to  this  letter  some  years  after,  Ericsson  said: 
"My  memory  recalls  the  emotion  I  experienced  when  you  in- 
formed me  in  a  friendly  note,  at  the  close  of  the  gigantic  war  in 
which  you  had  rendered  the  Republic  such  signal  services,  that 
you  had  not  money  enough  to  take  you  back  to  your  native 
to\s'n.  We  read  of  such  disinterestedness  in  romance,  but  do 
not  look  for  it  in  real  life.  How  fortunate  if  the  great  Repub- 
lic furnishes  many  such  instances  of  patriotism  and  integrity!" 

For  the  mission  of  Mr.  Fox  the  monitor  Miantonomoh  was 
chosen.  She  was  a  Navy  Yard  built,  two-turreted  monitor, 
carrying  four  15-inch  smooth-bore  muzzle-loading  guns,  and 
was  commanded  by  Commodore  J.  C.  Beaumont,  U.S.N. 
Two  other  naval  vessels,  the  Augusta  and  the  Ashuelot,  ac- 
companied her  as  escort.  A  profound  impression  was  created 
among  the  sceptics,  especially  in  England,  by  the  actual  ap- 
pearance on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  of  the  strange  vessel 
they  had  so  long  persisted  in  declaring  incapable  of  making  a 
sea  voyage.  To  the  guns  of  the  Monitor  they  had  nothing  to 
oppose  in  the  way  of  defence,  for  the  foreign  guns  of  that  day 
were  ineffective  against  a  vessel  carrying  ten  inches  of  armor 
on  the  turret  and  seven  inches  on  the  sides.  Not  only  were  the 
monitors  superior  to  the  broadside  vessels  of  England  for  fight- 
ing purposes,  but  also  as  sea  boats.  As  the  result  of  his  exper- 
ience, Mr.  Fox,  in  the  published  report  of  his  mission,  said: 

The  facts  with  regard  to  the  behavior  of  this  vessel  in  a  moderate 
gale  of  wind  and  heavy  sea  are  as  follows:  Head  to  the  sea,  she  takes 
over  about  four  feet  of  solid  water,  which  is  broken  as  it  sweeps  the  sea 
along  the  deck,  and  after  reaching  the  turret  it  is  too  much  spent  to 
prevent  firing  the  1.5-inch  gun  directly  ahead.  Broadside  to  the  sea, 
either  moving  along  or  stopped,  her  lee  guns  can  always  be  worked 
without  difficulty,  the  water  which  passes  across  the  deck  from  wind- 
ward being  divided  by  the  turrets,  and  her  extreme  roll  so  moderate  as 
not  to  press  her  lee-guns  near  the  water.  Lying  in  the  same  position, 
the  15-inch  guns  can  be  fired  directly  astern  without  interference  from 
water,  and  when  stern  to  sea,  the  water  which  comes  on  board  is  broken 
up  in  the  same  manner  as  when  going  head  to  it.  In  the  trough  of  the 
sea  her  ports  will  be  liable  to  be  flooded,  if  required  to  use  her  guns  to 
windward.  This,  therefore,  would  be  the  position  selected  by  an  an- 
tagonist who  designed  to  fight  a  monitor  in  a  sea-way. 

An  ordinary  vessel  high  out  of  water  and  lying  in  the  trough  of  the 
sea,  broadside  to,  is  attacked  by  a  wave  which  climbs  up  the  side,  heels 


FOREIGN  RECOGNITION.  79 

her  to  leeward,  and,  passing  underneath,  assists  in  throwing  her  back  to 
windward,  when  another  wave  is  met  and  the  heavy  lee  lurch  is  repeat- 
ed. A  wave  advancing  upon  a  monitor  in  a  similar  position  finds  no 
side  above  the  water  to  act  against;  it  therefore  climbs  aboard  without 
difficulty,  heels  the  vessel  a  few  degrees  to  windward,  and  passes  quickly 
to  leeward  underneath.  The  water  which  has  got  on  board,  having  no 
support  to  force  it  on,  and  an  inclined  deck  to  ascend,  becomes  broken 
water,  a  small  portion  going  across  the  deck  and  off  to  leeward,  but  the 
largest  part  tumbling  back  to  windward,  overboard,  without  sending 
against  the  turret  anything  like  the  quantity  which  first  got  on  deck. 
The  turret-guns  thus  occupy  a  central  position,  where,  notwithstanding 
the  lowness  of  the  vessel's  hull,  they  are  more  easily  and  safely  handled 
in  a  sea-way  than  guns  of  the  same  weight  above  the  water  in  a  broad- 
side vessel. 

The  axis  of  the  bore  of  the  15-inch  gun  of  this  vessel  is  6 J  feet  above 
the  water.  The  extreme  lurch  when  lying  broadside  to  a  heavy  sea  and 
moderate  gale  was  7  degrees  to  windward,  and  4  degrees  to  leeward, 
mean  5§  degrees,  while  the  average  roll  at  the  same  time  of  the 
Augusta — a  remarkably  steady  ship — was  18  degrees,  and  the  Ash- 
uelot  25  degrees,  both  vessels  being  steadied  by  sail.  A  vessel  which 
attacks  a  monitor  in  a  sea-way  must  approach  very  close  to  have  any 
chance  of  hitting  such  a  low  hull,  and  even  then  the  monitor  is  half 
the  time  covered  by  three  or  four  feet  of  water,  protecting  herself  and 
disturbing  her  opponent's  fire. 

Lying  in  the  trough  of  the  sea  with  her  engines  stopped,  on 
purpose  to  ascertain  her  behavior  under  the  most  trying  cir- 
cumstances, the  maximum  roll  of  the  Miantonomoh  was  but 
seven  degrees.  Eighteen  degrees  was  a  common  experience 
with  broadside  British  iron-clads,  and  there  have  been  occa- 
sions on  which  they  actually  rolled  the  shot  out  of  their  guns. 
On  board  one  of  the  largest  of  them  the  guns,  when  loaded  and 
cast  loose,  ran  out  with  such  violence,  owing  to  the  rolling  of 
the  ship,  that  the  carriages  brought  up  against  the  ship's  side 
with  a  force  sufficient  to  start  the  rifled  shot  and  cause  them  to 
fall  from  the  guns  into  the  green  seas  which  washed  their 
muzzles.  It  was  then  attempted  to  fire  the  guns  on  the  rise, 
but  the  shot  went  heavenward,  heaven  knows  whither,  and 
one  gun  at  least  was  carried  right  off  its  slide  by  the  force  of 
the  recoil,  combined  with  the  inclination  of  the  deck.  The 
Bellerophon  and  Lord  Clyde  in  an  Atlantic  swell  rolled  through 
an  arc  of  34  degrees.* 

♦The  London  Engineer,  December  21,  1866. 


80  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

"When  the  Mlariionomoh  arrived  at  Qneenstown,  Mr.  Fox 
and  his  party  waited  upon  the  Admiral  commanding  the  sta- 
tion to  pav  their  respects.  His  residence  overlooked  the  roads 
and  they  found  him  critically  examining  the  monitor  through 
a  glass,  nothing  but  her  turrets  being  visible  from  the  bluff 
where  he  stood.  After  exchanging  salutations,  the  Admiral 
asked  Mr.  Fox,  somewhat  abruptly  : 

"  Did  you  cross  the  Atlantic  in  that  thing?" 

On  Mr.  Fox  replying  that  lie  did,  the  Admiral  said,  with 
much  emphasis :  "  I  doubt  if  I  would.-' 

Ericsson's  fi-iends  in  Eno;land  had  fought  hard  for  his  recog- 
nition,  but  until  this  moment  it  had  not  been  accorded,  for  na- 
val sentiment  and  prejudice,  and  dock -yard  interests  were  all 
against  him.  In  February,  1564,  Mr.  Bennett  "Woodcroft,  of 
the  English  Patent  Office,  who  was  thoroughly  familiar  with 
Ericsson's  mechanical  labors,  asked  him  to  send  some  account 
of  his  inventions  for  publication.  In  reply  he  was  told  :  "At 
present  it  is  wholly  out  of  my  power  to  attend  to  so  unimpor- 
tant a  matter  as  my  own  affairs.  I  have  not  a  single  moment 
to  spare.  The  fact  is  that  my  inventions  have  multiplied  so 
rapidly  within  the  last  fifteen  years  that  it  will  be  a  very  ardu- 
ous undertaking  to  record  the  same." 

Another  earnest  friend  was  John  Bourne,  C.E.,  author  of 
the  standard  treatise  on  the  steam-engine  and  screw  propeller, 
and  of  other  works  dealing  with  mechanical  inventions.  Early 
in  1863  he  wrote  to  Ericsson,  saying:  '*  There  is  a  very  gen- 
eral appreciation  of  your  talents  in  this  country  among  engi- 
neers, and  a  regret  that  through  the  stupidity  of  our  Admi- 
ralty those  talents  were  lost  to  this  country. 

"  As  in  the  case  of  the  screw  propeller,  so  in  the  case  of  the 
monitors,  we  will  have  justice  in  England."  It  was  certainly 
well  for  England  that  she  should  recognize  the  abilities  of  the 
man  who  had  expended  less  in  building  a  fleet  of  a  dozen 
formidable  iron-clads  than  her  ordnance  officers  had  wasted  in 
the  unsuccessful  effort  to  produce  a  gun  sufficiently  powerful 
to  protect  her  against  such  craft. 

February  28,  1865,  Mr.  Bourne  wrote  suggesting  that  Erics- 
son should  offer  to  construct  vessels  on  his  plans  for  the  Ad- 
miralty, and  proposed  to  conduct  negotiations  to  that  end.     "  I 


■     FOREIGN   RECOGNITION.  81 

^iiite  concur  in  the  opinion,"  he  said  in  other  letters,  "  that 
our  iron-clads  are  a  mistake,  that  the  construction  of  our  navy 
must  begin  anew,  and  that  it  must  be  on  the  turret  system. 
There  has  been  great  misstatement  as  to  the  sea-going  proper- 
ties of  tlie  monitors,  and  I  think  two  parties  have  been  inter- 
ested in  running  them  down  ;  first,  Coles's  party,  who  hope  thus 
to  conceal  their  piracies,  and  second,  the  Admiralty  people  who 
have  been  against  Coles,  and  who,  to  resist  him,  have  been 
willing  to  deal  a  thrust  at  the  turret  system."  Mr.  Bourne 
further  says  :  "  With  all  its  weaknesses  and  faults  there  is,  in 
public  opinion  in  England,  a  vast  amount  of  honesty  and  a  sin- 
cere desire  to  do  and  believe  what  is  right  and  true  ;  and  where 
such  a  disposition  exists  it  can  never  be  very  difficult  to  set  it 
right  on  any  topic  engaging  public  attention.  In  technical 
matters  the  difficulty  is  less  than  in  general  matters,  as  the  au- 
dience is  smaller — is  without  prejudice — and  is  competent  to 
apprehend  mechanical  argument.  And  the  general  public,  in 
such  matters,  take  their  creed  from  those  who  are  more  in- 
structed. The  body  we  have  to  do  with  is  the  engineers^  and 
once  they  are  set  right  they  will  soon  be  able  to  set  right  all 
the  rest." 

Finding  in  January,  1866,  that  the  Admiralty  had  "  broken 
with  Coles,"  Mr.  Bourne  wrote  to  Mr.  Heed,  Chief  Constructor 
of  the  British  Xavy,  suggesting  that,  as  public  opinion  in  Eng- 
land required  that  the  turret  system  be  fairly  tested,  and  as 
Ericsson  was  the  author  of  that  system,  it  would  be  well  to 
open  negotiations  with  him.  "  I  have  the  same  sympathy  with 
Mr.  Reed,"  wrote  Bourne  to  Ericsson,  "  that  I  have  with  you, 
for  he  is  a  man  of  practical  ability  who  has  been  placed  in  an 
onerous  position,  heretofore  occupied  by  amateurs  or  pretenders, 
and  he  has  the  full  diapason  cry  of  that  class  against  him.  He 
is  fighting  the  battle  of  practical  men  against  party  intrigues, 
family  interest,  and  other  such  things  imported  so  commonly 
into  public  affairs." 

With  a  subtle  knowledge  of  Ericsson's  chief  weakness,  Mr. 
Bourne  added  :  "  Do  not  let  us  have  any  fighting,  which  is  a 
slow  and  thankless  process,  and  creates  an  amount  of  friction 
that  impairs  or  arrests  the  force  even  of  great  talents." 

Again  Mr.  Bourne  wrote:  "Mr.  Reed  has  a  very  genuine 
Vol.  II.— 6 


82  UFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

admiration  of  your  talents,  and  is  without  one  particle  of  jeal- 
ousy or  pettiness  in  his  nature.  I  know  the  contempt  and  aver- 
sion which  you  must  naturally  have  for  the  common  order  of 
oflScialism.  But  that  weed  only  thrives  among  the  inferior 
order  of  minds,  whereas  Mr.  Reed  is  a  man  of  talent,  who  has 
been  brought  in  over  the  heads  of  hoc  omne  genus;  he  is  natu- 
rally distasteful  to  them  and  has  no  sympathy  with  them.  His 
sympathies  are  with  men  of  talent  and  against  officialism.  The 
Admiralty  now  is  quite  a  different  place  from  what  it  was  when 
the  wiseacres  there  maintained  that  your  screw  boat  would  not 
steer," 

Mr  Bourne  was  somewhat  too  sanguine  in  his  conclusion 
concerning  mv  Lords  of  the  Admiraltv,  as  the  following  corre- 
spondeuce  will  show: 

Berkeley  Villa,  Regent's  Park  Road, 
London,  January  31,  1SC6. 
The  Secretary  of  the  Admiralty. 

My  Lord:  Understanding  that  it  is  the  intention  of  my  Lord  Com- 
missioners of  the  Admiralty  to  test  more  fully  the  qualities  of  turret 
vessels  in  the  British  Xavy,  and  concluding  that  their  Lordships  would 
wish  to  take  advantage  of  the  valuable  experience  acquired  with  such 
vessels  in  America  both  under  fire  and  in  heavy  seas,  I  have  the  honor 
to  state  that  I  am  authorized  by  I\Ir.  Ericsson,  of  New  York,  the  inventor 
of  the  turret  system,  to  say  that  he  will  be  happy  to  co-operate  with 
their  Lordships  in  the  production  of  one  or  more  such  vessels,  which 
co-operation  might  be  by  taking  a  contract  for  them,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  engines  of  the  Amphion — the  first  English  screw  vessel  with  the  en- 
gines below  the  water-line — or  it  might  be  in  any  other  way  that  my 
Lords  may  consider  preferable. 

Mr.  Ericsson  has  considered  that  it  would  be  more  agreeable  to  my 
Lords  that  the  communication  should  come  from  someone  in  London 
with  whom  the  officers  of  the  Admiralty  could,  if  necessary,  confer,  than 
that  it  should  form  the  subject  of  correspondence  with  himself  in  New 
York. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be. 

Your  most  obedient,  humble  servant, 

John  Bourne. 

Admiralty,  April  13,  1866. 
Sir:  With  reference  to  your  letter  of  31st  of  January,  I  am  com- 
manded by  my  Lord  Commissioners  of  the  Admiralty  to  acquaint  you 
that  they  are  not  prepared  to  accept  the  proposal  of  Mr.  Ericsson  to  af- 


FOREIGN  RECOGNITION.  83 

ford  their  Lordships  the  advantages  of  his  services  in  regard  to  the  con- 
struction of  turret  vessels. 

I  am,  sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

w.  r.  romaine. 
John  Bourne,  Esq, 

London,  May  30,  1S6G. 
The  Secretary  op  the  Admiralty. 

Sir:  I  have  communicated  to  Captain  Ericsson,  in  New  York,  the  re- 
ply with  which  you  honored  me  on  April  13th  to  my  letter  of  January 
31st,  and  in  which  you  state  that  their  Lordships  are  not  prepared  to 
accept  the  proposal  which  I  was  authorized  by  Captain  Ericsson  to 
make,  that  he  would  offer  them  the  advantage  of  his  services  in  regard 
to  the  construction  of  turret  vessels. 

In  now  notifving  you  of  Captain  Ericsson's  acquiescence  in  that  deci- 
sion, I  may  be  permitted  to  express  my  regret  that  their  Lordships  have 
not  been  able  to  render  available  for  the  public  interests  the  talents  and 
experience  of  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  of  the  present  age,  and 
whose  assent  to  my  proposal  that  he  should  give  the  Admiralty  the  ben- 
efit of  his  information  I  thought  it  a  matter  of  some  importance  to  have 
obtained — especially  as  he  was  willing  to  have  acted  without  emolument 
or  conditions — both  his  reputation  and  his  wealth  rendering  him  inde- 
pendent of  such  considerations. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be  your  most  obedient  servant, 

John  Bourne. 

P.S. — The  monitor  vessel,  Miantonomoh  is  about  to  leave  the  United 
States  for  England,  and  may  be  expected  in  Portsmouth  about  June 
20th  with  Mr.  Fox,  the  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  American  Navy,  on 
board.  J.  B. 

It  was  at  ]\Ir.  Bourne's  suggestion  and  solicitation  that  Er- 
icsson had  authorized  him  to  make  the  proposition  he  did  to 
the  Admiralty.  But  again,  "the  vessel  would  not  steer  with 
the  power  applied  to  the  stern."  Perish  the  British  Empire 
rather  than  suffer  British  officialism  to  be  urged  beyond  its 
wonted  pace,  or  forced  into  new  channels  by  the  propulsion 
coming  from  a  foreign  inventor! 

The  action  of  Mr.  Bourne  had  placed  Ericsson  in  a  A\Tong 
light,  and  upon  receiving  copies  of  this  correspondence  he  wrote 
(May  11,  1866),  saying: 

The  tone  of  the  reply  you  have  received  from  the  Admiralty  annoys 
me  greatly,  and  I  request  the  favor  of  you  to  get  me  out  of  the  false  po- 
sition in  which  I  find  myself.     Please,  therefore,  inform  my  Lord  Com- 


84  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

missioners  in  a  positive  manner,  that  I  oflfered  my  services  free  of 
charge,  merelv  from  a  motive  of  being  useful  to  England,  without  the 
friendly  aid  of  which,  my  native  country  will  sooner  or  later  become  a 
Russian  province.  It  will  do  no  hann  if  you  tell  their  Lordships  that 
apart  from  my  motive  being  strictly  patriotic,  I  am  in  a  position  to  ren- 
der, and  do  habitually  render,  professional  services  of  such  character 
without  pay. 

The  Miantanomoh  came  as  Bourne  had  promised.  At  Ports- 
mouth and  in  the  Thames  she  was  visited  bj  the  Prince  of 
"Wales,  the  Duke  of  Edinburgh,  the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty, 
encased  in  their  armor  of  official  prejudice,  naval  officers  with- 
out number,  as  well  as  curious  crowds  who  flocked  by  the  thou- 
sand to  see  the  latest  Yankee  wonder.  The  sensation  she  cre- 
ated was  indescribable.  Ridicule  had  changed  to  wonder,  and 
doubt  to  alarm.  Visitors  saw,  as  the  London  Times  declared 
(July  IT,  1S66),  "a  portentous  spectacle,  a  fabric  something 
between  a  ship  and  a  diving-bell — the  Pomans  would  have 
called  it  a  tortoise — almost  invisible,  but  what  there  was  of  it 
ugly,  at  once  invulnerable  and  irresistible,  that  had  crossed  the 
Atlantic  safely.  Pound  this  fearful  invention  were  moored 
scores  of  big  ships,  not  all  utter  antiquities,  but  modern,  and 
there  was  not  one  of  them  that  the  foreigner  could  not  have 
sent  to  the  bottom  in  five  minutes,  liad  his  errand  not  been 
peaceful.  There  was  not  one  of  these  big  ships  that  could 
have  avenged  the  loss  of  its  companion,  or  saved  itself  from  im- 
mediately sharing  its  fate.  In  fact,  the  wolf  was  in  the  fold 
and  the  whole  flock  was  at  its  mercy." 

The  unhappy  Times  had  been  occupied  for  years  in  belit- 
tling the  monitors  ;  it  now  proceeded  to  consider  the  cost  of  the 
735  ships  of  the  Poyal  Xavy  suddenly  become  antiquated,  fit 
only  to  be  laid  up  "  and  painted  that  dirty  yellow  which  is  uni- 
versally adopted  to  mark  treachery,  failure,  and  crime."  Just 
as  the  artillery  of  the  Xormans  was  superseded  by  that  of  the 
Plantagenets,  so  was  the  Navy  of  England  rendered  obsolete 
by  this  nondescript  vessel,  hardly  showing  itself  above  the 
water,  and  discharging  with  perfect  steadiness  and  accuracy  a 
projectile  against  which  even  the  best  British  armor-plate 
was  not  proof.  If  the  Yankee  vessel  was  invincible  to  the  best 
and  most  modern  of  England's  naval  constructions,  what  hope 


FOREIGN   RECOGNITION.  86 

was  there  for  the  swarm  of  ancient  curiosities  encumbering 
her  anchorages  ? 

On  the  occasion  of  the  Miantonotnol^ s  visit,  Sir  E.  J.  Reed 
declared  that  a  turret  vessel  could  be  made  more  secure  against 
rams  than  any  existing  vessel ;  that  it  was  onlj  by  boldness  and 
energy  equal  to  theirs  that  England  could  compete  with  the 
bold,  energetic  nation  that  had  sent  the  Miantononioh  across 
the  Atlantic ;  that  he  admired  immeasurably  the  daring  gen- 
ius of  Ericsson  in  sending  ships  of  the  monitor  type  to  sea ;  and 
finally,  that  it  M'as  necessary  to  develop  the  leading  idea  of  that 
class  to  secure  the  most  formidable  war  vessels.  Ko  such  bold- 
ness was  displayed :  ''  Frenchmen,"  said  the  Revxie  des  Deux 
Mondes^  November,  1S66,  "  have  the  satisfaction  of  saying  that 
Eugland,  forced  in  spite  of  herself  into  a  path  for  which  she 
has  no  liking,  inasmuch  as  to  adopt  it  is  to  annihilate  the  co- 
lossal wooden  Xavy  of  which  she  was  so  proud,  is  content  to 
follow  in  our  wake.  She  seems  deficient  in  the  science  of  ar- 
tillery and  of  war-ship  building  ;  she  spends  money  by  millions 
without  producing  anything  that  gives  her  satisfaction ;  she 
hesitates  between  the  monitor  and  the  iron-clad  frigate,  and 
seems  afraid  to  settle  definitely  her  course  of  naval  action.'' 

The  Times  was  oppressed  by  the  thought  of  the  resistance 
that  would  inevitably  be  aroused  by  any  attempt  to  bring  the 
British  Kavy  up  to  the  mark  of  the  day.  Against  this  vis 
inertioe  Ericsson  had  struggled  all  his  life.  Only  once  had  he 
succeeded  in  overcoming  it,  and  that  was  when  the  exigencies 
of  war  gave  him  control  of  the  naval  construction  of  a  great 
nation,  and  enabled  him  to  silence,  if  not  to  convince,  naval 
prejudice.  lie  had  his  way  for  a  brief  period,  only  because 
the  affair  at  Hampton  Roads  satisfied  our  naval  authorities, 
for  the  time  being,  that  they  could  not  afford  any  longer  "  to 
pile  sailors  in  tall  ships,  where  they  are  as  devoted  to  destruc- 
tion as  the  captives  said  to  be  crammed  into  huge  figures  of 
wicker-work  by  our  British  forefathers,  and  burned  in  honor  of 
their  gods." 

"  It  is  hardly  reasonable  to  expect,"  said  the  London  TimeSy 
"  that  anybody  that  has  had  a  share  in  the  creation  of  one  of 
our  magnificent  three-deckers  should  ever  consent  to  its  de- 
struction, or  even  to  its  disuse.     The  officers  of  her  Majesty's 


86  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

Naval  Sen'ice  are  a  very  gallant  body  of  men,  and  they  are 
prepared  to  brave  the  foe  and  the  fury  of  the  elements;  but 
they  will  not  easily  be  persuaded  to  live  below  the  water-line, 
and  to  be  supplied  with  air  by  a  steam-engine.  We  wait  for 
war  to  convert  old  sailors  to  such  a  novelty  as  this.  It  is  the 
public  and  not  the  Service  that  will  lead  the  way."  It  is  im- 
possible to  transfer  to  a  monitor  the  sentiment  connected  with 
a  line-of-battle  ship,  of  which  ^Ir.  Ruskin  says  in  his  "Har- 
bors of  England:" 

For  one  thing  this  century  will,  in  after-ages,  be  considered  to  have 
done  in  a  superb  manner,  and  one  thing,  I  think  only.  ...  It  will 
always  be  said  of  us,  with  unabated  reverence,  "They  built  ships  of  the 
line."  Take  it  all  in  all,  a  ship  of  the  line  is  the  most  honorable  thing 
that  man,  as  a  gregarious  animal,  has  ever  produced.  By  himself,  un- 
helped,  he  can  do  better  things  than  ships  of  the  line;  he  can  make 
poems  and  pictures,  and  other  such  corcentrations  of  what  is  best  in  him. 
But  as  a  being  living  in  flocks,  and  hammering  out,  with  alternate 
strokes  and  mutual  agreement,  what  is  necessary  for  him  in  those  flocks 
to  get  or  produce,  the  ship  of  the  line  is  his  first  work.  Into  that  he 
has  put  as  much  of  his  human  patience,  common-sense,  forethought, 
experimental  philosophy,  self-control,  habits  of  order  and  obedience, 
thoroughly  wrought  handwork,  defiance  of  brute  elements,  careless 
courage,  careful  patriotism,  and  calm  expectation  of  the  judgment  of 
God,  as  can  well  be  put  into  a  space  of  300  feet  long  by  80  broad.  And 
I  am  thankful  to  have  lived  in  an  age  when  I  could  see  this  thing  so 
done. 

Ericsson  did  not  share  the  hopeful  anticipations  of  Bourne 
as  to  Mr.  Reed's  open-mindedness,  and  the  disposition  in  Eng- 
land to  deal  fairly  with  invention  when  once  the  facts  were 
understood.  Drawing  upon  his  own  rich  store  of  practical  ex- 
perience, he  sent  a  striking  reply  to  his  friend's  various  argu- 
ments and  suggestions  to  this  effect  (^lay  1,  1S66): 

Your  reasoning  about  the  futility  of  attempting  to  smother  invention 
is  not  new  to  me.  Every  point  you  make  presented  itself  to  my  mind 
long  ago,  but  what  I,  in  1836,  fully  expected  to  see  brought  out  by  other 
inventors  within  a  year  or  two,  has  not  come  yet.  England — ingenious, 
mechanical  England — like  a  certain  animal  deeming  himself  safe  pro- 
viding his  head  is  protected,  spends  millions  after  millions,  adding  inch 
after  inch  to  the  thickness  of  armor-plates,  for  the  purpose  of  producing 


FOREIGN  RECOGNITION.  87 

towering,  impregnable  iron  castles,  placed  upon,  not  "sand"  as  the  fable 
relates,  but  upon  a  thin  bladder  that  may  be  pricked  in  a  thousand 
ways.  Let  us  not  do  the  inventors  of  England  the  injustice  to  say  that 
they  have  overlooked  the  matter. 

Some  ten  years  ago,  you  will  remember,  the  mechanical  journals  de- 
picted various  contrivances  for  sinking  an  enemy's  ship.  The  Admiralty, 
however,  remained  indifferent,  and  will  remain  indifferent.  Their  Lord- 
ships have  unintentionally  done  the  right  thing,  in  my  opinion;  for  al- 
ready the  introduction  of  iron-clads  has,  by  throwing  out  of  the  count 
England's  mighty  fleet  of  ships  of  the  line,  rendered  her  voice  only  half 
as  potent  as  it  used  to  be.  If  now  her  sons  set  to  work  elaborating  the 
subaquatic  system  of  warfare,  build  and  carry  into  practice,  so  that  her 
enemies  may  learn — that  they  may  be  fully  convinced  that  there  is  no 
mistake  about  her  iron-clads  too  being  worthless — then,  what  little  in- 
fluence Albion  yet  possesses  will  be  diminished  in  proportion  to  the 
success  of  the  proposed  device. 

I  say  again,  leave  the  thing  alone  and  let  England  retain  what  pres- 
tige she  has  left.  In  twenty  years  there  will  be  a  mighty  change,  for 
by  that  time  the  expense  of  the  present  armament  will  become  insup- 
portable, and  nations  will  come  to  a  better  understanding.  But  for  the 
appearance  of  the  unscrupulous  and  dynasty-mad  Napoleon  III.  on  the 
world's  stage,  and  but  for  the  fatal  course  adopted  by  cunning,  adroit 
Palmerston,  who  lacked  the  power  of  looking  into  the  future,  England 
would  have  no  occasion  at  present  to  waste  her  energies  on  iron-clads 
and  torpedoes. 

Could  English  statesmen  have  seen  the  folly  of  treating  America  as 
a  commercial  rival,  and  the  futility  of  attempting  to  arrest  her  onward 
course  by  committing  the  crime  of  helping  to  perpetuate  slavery,  Eng- 
land and  America,  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  would  now  rule  the  world. 
Once  more,  do  not  be  in  a  hurry  to  do  anything  tending  to  disturb  the 
present  balance  by  showing  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  maritime 
power.  The  truth  will  leak  out  some  day,  but  I  trust  not  until  its  pro- 
mulgation will  be  harmless  to  that  country  to  which  mankind  is  mainly 
indebted  for  the  enjoyment  of  liberty. 

What  you  say  of  Russia  compels  me  to  observe  that  the  unfriendly 
course  of  England  has  driven  America  into  the  hateful  embrace  of  the 
executioner  of  Poland.  We  had  no  other  friend  during  the  late  fearful 
war.  Deluded  by  English  misrepresentations,  all  civilized  Europe  was 
on  the  side  of  slavery.  But  pray  do  not  for  a  moment  suppose  that  the 
liberty-loving  citizens  of  the  United  States  have  any  genuine  sympathy 
for  the  semi-barbarians  east  of  the  Baltic. 

Respecting  the  Russian  monitors,  I  say,  the  more  the  merrier.  And 
with  regard  to  the  American  torpedo  boats,  I  reluctantly  observe  that 
our  achievements,  in  a  mechanical  or  scientific  point  of  view,  have  been 
contemptible.  The  plans  proposed  and  carried  out  remind  one  of 
catching  wild  birds  by  putting  salt  on  their  tails.      To  pull  secretly 


88  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

alongside  an  enemy's  vessel  moored  to  a  dock,  in  a  dark  night,  and  put- 
ting a  bag  of  powder  under  her  bilge  and  setting  fire  to  it,  as  was  done 
by  Lieutenant  Gushing,  proves  great  daring,  but  nothing  more.     .     .     . 

AVritteu  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  this  letter  is  the  clear- 
est possible  statement  of  the  conditions  and  tendencies  of  naval 
construction,  as  tliey  have  since  revealed  themselves,  and  as 
they  were  present  to  Ericsson's  prophetic  vision  even  many 
years  earlier  than  this,  when  his  ideas  of  monitor  construction 
and  subaquatic  attack  had  begun  to  take  definite  shape.  The 
end  he  had  constantly  in  view  was  to  make  the  ocean  such  an 
uncomfortable  place  for  the  maritime  bully,  that  a  consensus 
of  opinion  would  finally  compel  its  recognition  as  neutral  terri- 
tory. Just  as  the  invention  of  fire-arms  has  put  the  weakest 
saint  upon  an  equality  in  physical  contentions  with  the  bullies 
of  the  prize-ring,  so  the  possibilities  of  subaquatic  attack  have 
placed  the  weakest  of  maritime  nations  upon  a  par  with  the 
strongest. 

If,  as  Ericsson  believed,  it  is  in  the  power  of  science,  by  the 
expenditure  of  thousands,  to  neutralize  the  vessels  upon  which 
wealthy  nations  have  expended  their  millions,  and  with  the 
labor  of  half  a  dozen  men  to  counteract  the  less  skilled  efforts 
of  as  many  hundreds,  of  what  profit  is  naval  warfare  ?  Devot- 
ing to  the  study  of  mechanical  science  the  resources  of  a  mind 
especially  created  for  such  investigations,  Ericsson  compre- 
hended, as  few  men  do,  the  enormous  changes  in  the  relations 
of  men  and  of  nations  that  must  follow  from  the  inventions 
and  discoveries  of  the  present  century.  Xow  it  is  true,  as 
never  before,  that  "  the  stars  in  their  courses  figbt  against 
Sisera."  The  powers  of  nature  are  arraying  themselves  against 
those  who  would  establish  empire  by  any  other  than  peaceful 
means. 

"Wars  will  not  cease  until  human  nature  is  changed,  but 
they  will  be  more  and  more  confined  to  those  mighty  move- 
ments which,  in  the  order  of  Providence,  seem  to  be  essential  at 
times  to  national  regeneration.  The  issues  will  be  between 
peoples  and  not  between  states,  and  in  their  origin  and  results 
future  contests  will  be  national  and  not  dynastic.  To  this  end 
no  man  has  contributed  more  in  his  day  than  John  Ericsson. 

It  is  obvious  that  it  was  Ericsson's  purpose  to  drive  fighting 


FOREIGN  RECOGNITION.  89 

men  from  the  ocean  ;  not  to  make  them  comfortable  there ; 
and  there  was  an  inevitable  antagonism  between  his  point  of 
view  and  that  of  the  naval  officer.  For  the  mere  dignities  of 
the  quarter-deck  he  had  small  respect,  and  he  dealt  with  ad- 
mirals and  commodores  as  only  so  many  parts  of  his  fighting 
machine.  He  sought  to  elevate  engineering  science  above 
nautical  experience,  and  to  give  to  "  greasy  mechanics "  the 
place  of  honor  to  which  he  believed  them  entitled  in  this  age 
of  steam  and  iron.  He  simply  fought  out  on  new  lines  a  contest 
dating  from  the  beginning  of  modern  naval  experience.  War- 
like training  requires  that  the  fighting  instinct  should  have  the 
position  of  control,  and  this  tends  to  place  those  who  minister  to 
the  mechanical  forces,  of  which  even  warriors  must  avail  them- 
selves, in  the  position  of  the  galley-slaves,  chained  to  the  oars, 
who  contributed  to  the  glory  of  the  warriors  of  old  without  being 
suffered  to  share  it.  England's  early  naval  heroes  were  soldiers 
and  not  sailors,  and  they  were  wholly  dependent  upon  the  nau- 
tical skill  of  their  sailing-masters  for  their  ability  to  fight  upon 
the  ocean,  instead  of  upon  the  land.  Finally,  the  character  of 
the  modern  naval  officer  developed  out  of  a  substitution  of 
what  may  be  called  a  chemical  union  of  the  soldier  and  the  sailor 
for  mere  mechanical  association.  Scarcely  had  this  result  been 
accomplished  when  the  substitution  of  steam  as  a  motive  power 
resolved  into  their  original  elements  these  motive  and  militant 
forces. 

Once  more  the  attempt  to  unite  them  is  in  progress,  and  its 
success  is  for  the  future  to  determine.  Ericsson's  career  be- 
longs to  their  period  of  antagonism,  and  this  in  a  measure  ex- 
plains the  difficulties  with  which  he  contended  through  life  ; 
from  the  day  when  he  prophesied  to  his  friend  Count  von 
Rosen,  in  Southampton  Harbor,  of  his  ability  to  destroy  the 
glory  of  Britain's  walls  of  oak,  to  the  hour  when,  as  we  shall 
see  later  on,  the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty  sent  their  last  messao-e 
of  defiance  in  the  announcement  that  they  would  have  none  of 
his  Destroyer,  and  that  the  wisdom  that  rejected  the  propeller 
and  the  monitor  still  survived  at  Somerset  House.  There,  the 
influence  of  naval  predilections  and  opinions  is  supreme.  The 
only  argument  able  to  gain  access  to  the  nautical  mind  is  the 
argument  of  experience,  and  not  even  that,  if  this  experience  is 


90  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

not  in  the  line  of  established  s\Tnpathies.  This  argument  is 
impossible  on  behalf  of  new  things.  Hence  it  is  that  England 
retains  the  reputation  she  has  always  had,  and  which  she  shares 
with  America,  of  being  singularly  unprepared,  for  a  nation  so 
intelligent  and  wealthy,  at  the  outbreak  of  war,  when  new  de- 
vices and  new  methods  are  certain  to  make  their  appearance. 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 


ROLE    OF    THE    MONITOR. 


Ericsson  Declines  to  be  Paid  for  Monitor  Inventions. — Letters  from  the 
Prince  de  Joinville  and  Admiral  Spencer,  R.  N. — Threat  of  War 
with  Spain  in  1878. — Monitors  again  in  Demand. 

THOUGH  the  Miantonomoh  astonished  the  Englishmen  by 
crossing  the  Atlantic  and  knocking  at  their  front  door, 
and  the  Monadnock  made  a  successful  journey  of  fourteen  thou- 
sand miles  around  Cape  Horn  to  California,  it  was  not  Erics- 
son's idea  that  the  monitors  should  be  employed  for  cruising. 
These  vessels  he  tersely  described  as  rafts  with  an  impregnable, 
revolving,  cylindrical  iron  fort  above,  and  capacious,  water-tight, 
ship-shaped  bags  below.  They  had  accomplished  the  purpose 
intended,  and  it  was  expected  that  their  role  would  be  limited 
to  home  defence.  Their  designer  was  satisfied  with  their  per- 
formance along  our  coasts,  where  they  were  engaged  with  forts 
a  greater  number  of  times  than  any  other  vessels  ever  built,  and 
encountered  weather  of  all  sorts  without  danger. 

The  originator  of  the  monitor  system  held  from  the  begin- 
ning that  the  use  of  canvas  was  incompatible  with  low  free- 
board, though  he  so  far  yielded  to  the  wishes  of  the  Navy  De- 
partment as  to  propose  a  scheme  for  carrying  canvas  in  the 
Dictator.  In  the  diagram  on  page  95,  two  American  moni- 
tors. Dictator  and  Kalamazoo,  are  contrasted  with  two  British 
armored  ships,  built  by  Sir  E.  J.  Reed,  Chief  Constructor  of 
the  English  Navy,  under  the  influence  of  monitor  ideas  and 
monitor  experiences.  "The  year  1863,"  as  Sir  Thomas  Bras- 
sey  tells  us,  "is  remarkable  in  the  annals  of  iron-clad  construc- 
tion for  the  laying  down  of  the  Bcllerophon,  which  represented 
in  a  more  complete  form  the  various  ideas  with  which  Sir  E. 
J.  Reed  had  inoculated  the  Admiralty.*    A  section  in  outline 

♦Braesey's  British  Navy,  vol.  i.,  p.  86. 
91 


92  LIFE  OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

of  tlie  armored  portion  of  this  vessel  shows  a  single-turreted 
monitor,  witli  its  sides  rising  so  high  out  of  the  water 
(^higher  freeboard)  as  to  compel  a  reduction  in  the  thickness  of 
armor,  to  keep  it  within  the  limits  of  weight.  The  influence 
of  the  monitor  idea  on  foreign  construction  is  more  distinctly 
shown  in  the  diagram  on  page  97.  The  Thunderer  and  In- 
flexible were  English  mastless  turret-ships,  of  type  entirely  dif- 
ferent from  anything  preceding  them  and  confessedly  sug- 
gested by  the  Dictator.  The  Duillio  is  an  Italian  citadel-ship, 
launched  in  1876,  and  completed  in  1880.  Thus,  eighteen 
years  intervened  between  her  appearance  and  that  of  the  ori- 
ginal Monitor.  To  meet  the  rapid  advance  in  the  power  of 
artillery  greater  thickness  of  armor  was  required,  and  this,  it 
will  be  observed,  was  obtained  by  concentrating  the  armor  upon 
a  sort  of  monitor  construction  in  the  centre  of  the  vessel,  leav- 
ing the  rest  of  tlie  ship  exposed.  The  departure  shown  in  the 
foreign  vessels  from  the  simple  monitor  idea  of  a  single-tur- 
reted battery,  designed  for  fighting  purposes  alone,  was  a  nec- 
essary concession  to  nautical  ideas.  A  complete  adherence  to 
the  type,  even  in  our  own  navy,  was  only  possible  so  long  as 
Ericsson  had  control.* 

"While  he  insisted  on  the  completeness  of  his  system,  he  was 
ready  to  accept  suggestions  as  to  the  modification  of  its  details, 
made  by  those  who  had  had  actual  experience  with  his  vessels. 
It  was  not  always  easy,  however,  to  sift  valuable  suggestions 
from  the  mass  of  crude  conceit  and  prejudiced  criticism  so  wor- 
rying to  one  occupied  with  labors  that  were  to  the  last  degree 
exhausting.  During  the  first  trial  of  the  new  vessels  in  Charles- 
ton Harbor,  the  workings  of  the  turrets  were  interfered  with 
by  slight  derangements,  resulting  from  the  rough  handling  of 
battle,  and  requiring  only  minor  modifications  in  the  details  of 
construction  to  prevent  them  in  future.  Though  many  of 
these  were  so  slight  that  they  were  easily  corrected  by  the  use 
of  a  hammer  and  chisel  for  a  few  hours,  they  were  suflScient  to 
condemn  the  whole  system  in  the  eyes  of  eager  critics,  in  spite 

•  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  latest  tjpe  of  French  armored  vessel,  the 
Trehinrt  class  now  building  (1890),  with  their  "turtle  backs."  come  much 
nearer  in  appearance  to  Ericsson's  original  idea  of  1854  than  anything  here 
shown. 


EOLE   OF   THE   MONITOR.  93 

of  the  fact  that  all  the  vessels  reported  for  action  the  next 
morning.  These  critics  were  finally  silenced,  if  not  convinced, 
by  the  spectacle  of  monitors  engaging  the  batteries  again  and 
again  without  receiving  serious  injury,  though  they  were  hit 
hundreds  of  times,  every  square  foot  on  some  of  the  turrets 
exhibiting  the  effect  of  shot. 

A  letter  addressed  by  Ericsson  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  shows  how  he  was  accustomed  to  deal  with  the  alarm- 
ists in  the  Xavy  whose  faculties  found  full  play  in  criticising 
to  the  minutest  particular  craft  so  opposed  to  ship-shape  ideas : 

The  action  of  the  sea  under  the  extreme  ends  of  onr  iron-clads,  which 
experienced  admirals  and  gallant  captains  look  upon  as  an  insurmount- 
able difficulty,  dwindles  down  to  something  not  at  all  beyond  computa- 
tion when  subjected  to  the  investigation  of  the  experienced  engineer. 
Vague  and  extravagant  notions  of  the  force  of  the  turbulent  element 
soon  lose  their  terrors  when  tested  by  the  unerring  standard  furnished 
by  hydrostatic  and  dynamic  laws.  When  told  of  the  fearful  beating  of 
the  Passaic's  projecting  bow  against  the  sea,  and  the  angry  surge  that 
follows,  the  reflecting  engineer,  so  far  from  being  disposed  to  join  Cap- 
tain Drayton  in  his  advice  to  give  up  the  principle,  calmly  sets  to  work 
and  estimates  the  actual  force  expended  and  the  amount  of  resistance 
needed  to  meet  it.  Encouraged  by  the  fact  that  a  score  of  badly  driven 
rivets  suffice  to  arrest  the  assumed  irresistible  power  and  prevent  the 
instant  tearing  away  of  the  armored  projection  from  the  body  of  the  ves- 
sel, he  times  tbe  descent  of  the  bow  and  compares  it  with  the  trifling 
altitude  from  which  it  decc  ended.  Having  completed  his  investigation 
by  noting  the  motion  of  the  sea  and  measuring  th-?  surface  under  the 
bow,  acted  upon,  he  proceeds  to  calculate. 

The  comparative  insignificance  of  the  upward  strain  ostablished  by 
his  exact  calculation,  shows  in  a  conclusive  manner  why  the  Passaic  did 
7iot  cut  the  score  of  rivets,  and  jjart  at  the  junction  of  the  armor,  imme- 
diately after  the  very  first  reported  violent  descent  of  her  bow.  It  is 
hardly  necessaiy  to  state,  that  by  the  application  of  a  few  tons  of  mate- 
rials at  the  weak  point  of  the  junction  of  the  overhang,  an  amount  of 
strength  may  be  imparted  tenfold  greater  than  at  present. 

I  beg  that  you  will  not  deem  it  irrelevant  it  I  call  your  attention  to 
the  fact  that,  when  I  proposed  to  the  British  Admiralty,  in  1838,  to  ap- 
ply my  screw  propeller  to  ships  of  war,  the  most  experienced  men  in 
the  Navy  vehemently  protested  against  the  application,  asserting  that 
the  weight  and  action  of  the  propeller  would  wreck  the  stern.  We 
now  apply  heavier  propellers  to  vessels  of  two  hundred  tons  burden 
than  I  then  proposed  for  frigates !  Yet,  sir,  those  professional  gentle- 
men who  then  opposed  me,  saying  that  the  ship's  stern  could  not  sustain 


94  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

the  weight  of  the  propeller  and  the  action  of  the  sea  upon  it,  were  as 
experienced  as  the  distinguished  officers  who  now  advise  you  to  discard 
the  new  system  because  a  mechanical  difficulty  has  presented  itself, 
which  was  not  at  all  guarded  again.st,  and  which  our  engineering  re- 
sources have  not  been  drawn  upon — much  less  exhausted — in  overcoming. 
I  have  the  honor  to  observe  in  conclusion  that,  with  the  experience 
gained,  the  resources  of  modern  engineering  will  be  applied  without 
stint  to  render  the  Puritan  and  the  Dictator  perfect  and  as  far  superior 
to  the  present  European  fighting  ships  as  the  screw  frigate  is  superior 
to  the  former  sailing  man-of-war.* 

During  the  excitation  which  attends  the  exercise  of  the 
creative  impulse,  the  imagination  is  active  and  the  critical  fac- 
ulty is  in  suspense,  and  intelligent  criticism  is  most  useful  to 
the  worker,  enabling  him  to  at  once  judge  his  performances, 
as  he  will  judge  them  when  the  state  of  absorption  in  his  own 
ideas  has  passed.  But  so  much  of  the  criticism  to  which  Erics- 
son was  subjected  through  life  was  either  prejudiced  or  igno- 
rant, that  he  grew  into  the  habit  of  disregarding  professional 
opinion  as  of  little  or  no  value  to  him.  Again  and  again  he 
found  his  progress  checked  by  officials  who  could  only  be 
moved  to  activity  by  the  stern  command  of  immediate  neces- 
sity, and  who  had  no  wish  to  be  disturbed  in  their  comfortable 
routine  by  seekers  after  improvement.  Changes  involve  risks, 
such  as  the  dwellers  in  high  places  are  not  inclined  to  take,  and 
the  necessity  for  a  new  education  in  professional  matters.  To 
this  the  average  army  and  navy  officer  is  not  disposed,  and  the 
units  in  military  bodies  are  controlled  by  the  influence  of  the 
mass.  However  enterprising  the  individual,  the  general  senti- 
ment of  the  class  discourages  exceptional  activity  and  zeal  for 
improvement;  the  traditions  of  the  service  are  opposed  to  any 
departure  from  routine,  and  to  the  individual  initiative;  capa- 
city counts  for  less  than  rank  and  position,  and  the  ignorance 
of  chiefs  is  more  influential  than  the  knowledge  of  subalterns. 

Before  the  first  monitor  was  completed.  Commodore  Smith 
suggested  that  Ericsson's  improvements  on  the  turret  principle 
were  subject  to  patent,  and  that  if  the  Government  used  them  in 
other  vessels  he  would  have  a  claim  for  its  use.  Isaac  Newton 
wrote :t    "To  construct  vessels  on  the  Ericsson  system  is  more 

*  Letter  to  the  Honorable  Gideon  Welles,  January  10,  1863. 
•f  December  2,  1864. 


ROLE   OF  THE   MONITOR. 


95 


than  hewers  of  wood,  and  guessers  at  within  two  feet  more 
or  less  of  their  displacement,  can  stomach.  Do  not  think 
that  the  whole  United  States  iron-clad  navy  is  to  be  built  on 


tttTAntr 


British  and  American  Turreted  Vessels  Contrasted. 


the  Ericsson  system  if  they  can  help  it,  or  cannot  at  least  rob 
you  of  the  fame  connected  with  it;  hence  my  reason  for  asking 
you  to  patent  the  whole  concern  from  one  end  to  the  other,  so 
that  *he  who  runs  may  read.'    As  for  any  justice  from  the 


96  LIFE  OF  JOnN   ERICSSON. 

Kavy  Department  or  Government,  they  would  not  turn  their 
hands  over  to  assist  you  either  in  reputation  or  pocket." 

Ericsson  did  not  heed  tliis  well-meant  advice,  and  he  was 
subsequently  able  to  say,  in  answer  to  an  inquiry,  "  I  have  not 
received  any  remuneration  from  the  nation  for  the  Monito?', 
nor  did  I  patent  the  invention,  as  I  intended  it  as  a  contribution 
to  the  glorious  cause  of  the  Union."*  Ilis  profit  upon  it  came 
to  him  as  one  of  the  contractors  for  building  the  vessel,  and  not 
as  an  inventor. 

"When  in  1882  Senator  Piatt,  of  Connecticut,  proposed  to 
secure  from  Congress  some  recognition  of  his  services,  he  re- 
plied :  "  Nothing  could  induce  me  to  accept  any  remunera- 
tion from  the  United  States  for  the  monitor  invention,  once 
presented  by  me  as  my  contribution  to  the  glorious  Union 
cause,  the  triumph  of  which  freed  four  millions  of  bondsmen." 
In  a  similar  generous  spirit  Ericsson  declared  in  1869,  in 
writing  to  his  London  agents  to  secure  for  him  a  patent  for 
improvement  in  ordnance,  that  his  sole  object  for  applying  for 
this  patent  and  for  others  connected  with  naval  defence,  was  to 
put  the  inventions  on  record  as  being  the  result  of  his  labors 
and  research.  "  I  do  not  seek  emolument,"  he  told  Bourne  in 
1866  ;  "  what  I  desire  to  see  is  the  monitor  system  adopted  by 
that  great  power  which  my  native  land  looks  to  for  assistance 
in  a  contest  that  will  take  place  sooner  or  later."  At  the  same 
time  he  was  naturally  annoyed  because  a  marine  engineer  was 
paid  $40,000  for  the  device  of  a  hydraulic  lift  for  the  monitor 
turret,  when  he  received  nothing  for  the  turret  itself  or  for 
numerous  other  inventions  used  by  the  Government. 

Ericsson  always  insisted  that  his  vessels  should  be  fought 
end  on  in  a  naval  engagement,  so  as  to  avoid  the  risk  of  being 
run  down ;  to  sink  the  adversary,  if  possible,  by  a  sharp  thrust 
from  the  iron  beak  of  the  monitor,  and  in  fighting  forts  to  pre- 
sent the  smallest  possible  surface  to  the  accurate  fire  of  the 
stationary  guns.  In  this  way,  too,  the  inaccuracy  resulting 
from  rolling  in  a  seaway  could  be  escaped,  the  angle  of  inclina- 
tion of  the  gun-carriages  in  the  turrets  under  such  circumstances 
being  less  than  seven  degrees,  3^  degrees  above  and  below  the 
horizon  ;  not  sufiicient  to  overcome  friction  and  move  the  guns 
*  Letter  to  the  Evening  Herald,  Syracuse,  December  11,  1882. 


ROLE   OF  THE   MONITOR. 


97 


out  of  position,  as  the  angle  of  repose  between  iron  and  iron  is 
nearly  eight  degrees.  When  the  ordinary  ship  rolled  its  ports 
under  water,  the  commander  of  the  Monitor  craft,  by  simply 
directing  his  battery  over  the  bow,  defied  the  disturbing  influence 
of  the  heaviest  rolling. 

In  harbor  defence  the  light  draught  of  the  monitors  enables 


SAAranr 


VatfAmr 


EBaSMSdti'itfi'aSt 


biuKinr 


1 

if 

d 

I 

I 


Oevelopmen)  of  the  MonHor  Idea. 

them  to  run  into  the  shoal  water  at  the  sides  of  the  main  chan- 
nel, as  the  original  Monitor  did  when  the  Merrimac  undertook 
to  ram  her.  From  this  coign  of  vantage  such  vessels  could 
bring  their  heavy  guns  to  bear,  and  in  defiance  of  superior  size 
and  weight,  sink  the  intruding  iron-clad.  The  boast  of  the 
advocates  of  the  broadside  ships,  that  they  could  run  down  the 


98  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

monitors,  was  made  in  foigetfulness  of  this  fact,  and  of  the  fur- 
t]ier  fact  tliat  such    raft-like  structures  are  more  difficult  to 
sink  than  high-sided  vessels,  while  the  overhanging  sides  pro 
tect  the  hull  from  the  beak  of  a  ram. 

Among  others  who  have  expressed  their  opinion  of  Erics- 
son's system  of  naval  construction  is  that  distinguished  naval 
authority,  the  Prince  de  Joinville.  He  was  a  lieutenant  in 
the  navy  of  France  as  early  as  1S36,  a  rear-admiral  in  IS-iO, 
and  his  special  study  of  American  matters  as  a  participant  in 
our  Civil  "War  gave  him  a  familiarity  with  our  war  history  that 
few  Europeans  possess.  "Writing  to  Ericsson  as  late  as  January 
10,  IS 76,  he  said  : 

I  remember  well  our  talk  when  I  met  vou  coming  back  from  the 
fight  at  Hampton  Eoads,  and  how  I  went  down  on  mv  tender  and  re- 
mained with  Goldsborough  on  board  of  the  Minnesota  all  the  time  the 
landing  of  McClellan's  troops  appeared  a  tempting  bait,  in  the  hope  of 
seeing  the  fight  renewed.  Your  Monitor  was  a  stroke  of  genius  and  an 
immense  stride  in  advance  of  eveiything  at  that  time.  For  attack  and 
defence  in  shallow  water  it  has  not  vet  been  surpassed. 

I  believe,  too,  that  the  turret  and  revolving  gun  system  will  estab- 
lish itself  on  board  of  any  kind  of  ship  of  war,  but  I  am  among  the  un- 
believers in  the  continuance  of  sea-going  plated  ships.  The  sea  remains 
the  sea,  and  ships  must  be  able  to  live  in  a  storm.  The  unwieldy 
monsters  of  the  day  are  unable  to  do  it.  They  may  be  destroyed  by  a 
miserable  toi-pedo  canied  by  one  man  in  a  single  boat.  The  smallest 
blow  from  the  smallest  ram  can  send  them  to  the  bottom.  And  there 
will  always  be  a  gun  to  j^ierce  their  armor.  All  this  is  absurdity ;  it 
cannot  last.  All  sailors,  like  the  knights  of  yore,  will  throw  away  the 
cumbereome  cuirass  that  will  embaiTass  and  give  no  protection.  Very 
wise  indeed  was  your  Navy  Department  not  to  launch  itself  in  all  these 
fooUsh  and  costly  experiments  about  sea-going  iron-clads.  I  always 
take  great  interest  in  all  that  happens  in  your  great  country,  second 
only  to  my  own  in  my  aflfection. 

The  doubts  as  to  the  heavy  iron-clads  have  not  yet  been 
dispelled  by  further  experiment  and  investigation.  Ten  years 
after  De  Joinville,  a  distinguished  British  officer,  Admiral 
Spencer  Robinson,  formerly  Chief  Constructor  of  the  British 
Navy,  writing  to  Ericsson  on  the  same  topic,  said : 

It  is,  as  I  know,  the  merest  commonplace  to  say  that  we  wish  that  the 
progress  of  science  would  take  another  direction,  that  the  wonderful 


ROLE   OF  THE  MONITOR.  99 

ingenuity  of  man  could  be  exercised  as  successfully  in  promoting  the 
happiness  and  well-being  of  humanity  as  it  has  been  powerfully  devel- 
oped in  the  art  of  swift,  sudden,  and  horrible  destruction  of  the  spe- 
cies. But  this  is  not  the  millennium.  Violence,  Eobbery,  and  Wrong 
too  often  and  too  largely  guide  the  so-called  statesman  of  the  world  to 
permit  us  to  neglect  any  means  which  science  and  knowledge  put  before 
us  to  use  in  self-defence,  and  enable  us  to  make  the  just  and  righteous 
cause  prevail.  Under  these  restrictions,  I  think  nothing  better  adapted 
for  the  geographical  position  of  that  mighty  nation  stretching  from 
ocean  to  ocean  than  the  combined  system  of  monitors  and  torpedoes. 

In  response  to  the  attempt  to  show  that  the  monitors  were 
mere  "  clever  makeshifts,"  Ericsson  insisted  that  the  resources 
of  science  had  been  exhausted  in  the  endeavor  to  supplant  his 
vessel  bj  some  one  of  another  type.  It  was  to  be  superseded, 
as  he  believed,  only  as  all  sea-floating  iron-clad  structures  may 
be  said  to  be  superseded,  by  his  system  of  subaquatic  attack  by 
little  vessels  fighting  at  close  quarters.  He  was  sustained  in 
his  belief  by  the  opinion,  expressed  by  the  judges  on  naval 
structures  at  the  conclusion  of  the  Paris  Exhibition  of  1867, 
"  that  a  monitor  with  a  single  turret  and  unencumbered  deck, 
is  the  most  perfect  structure  for  naval  defence." 

The  monitors  in  onr  service  during  the  Civil  War  success- 
fully weathered  the  fearful  gales  on  the  inhospitable  shores  of 
North  and  South  Carolina  during  two  winters,  each  vessel  hav- 
ing been  engaged  on  an  average  twenty-five  times  with  bat- 
teries mounted  with  the  most  formidable  European  ordnance 
of  that  time,  sometimes  at  a  range  under  five  hundred  yards. 
Monitors  built  a  thousand  miles  away  fought  in  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  cruised  off  Cuban  ports  in  search  of  Confederate  iron- 
clads, and,  as  we  have  seen,  whenever  they  encountered  them 
either  captured  them,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Atlatita ;  or  de- 
stroyed them,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Tennessee  and  the  JSfasliville. 

On  more  than  one  occasion  Ericsson  felt  called  upon  to 
turn  aside  from  his  work  of  constructing  monitors  to  engage 
in  their  defence  against  the  assaults  directed  against  them  in  the 
press.  Some  of  these  had  their  origin  in  ignorance,  some  in 
prejudice,  and  others  in  hostility  to  him  or  to  the  administra- 
tion under  whose  orders  he  was  acting.  Once  he  so  far  de- 
parted  from  his  usual  course  of  action  as  to  send  to  the  editor 
of  one  of  the  leading  New  York  dailies  a  transcript  from  his 


100  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

cash  account,  showing  the  various  sums  he  had  been  called  upon 
to  "lend"  to  the  author  of  its  articles  on  the  Monitor,  and 
making  it  clear  that  his  hostility  was  due  to  a  refusal  of  fur- 
ther loans.  The  offender  was  promptly  dismissed,  and  trans- 
ferred his  scheme  of  operations  to  another  sheet.  From  this 
he  disappeared  on  receipt  of  another  letter  from  Ericsson,  to 
renew  his  assaults  in  a  third  journal. 

At  one  time  there  was  a  specially  virulent  attack,  of  which 
Secretary  Welles  wTote  to  Ericsson  (August  11,  1864): 

This  concerted  attack  upon  the  monitor,  or  turreted  class  of  vessels, 
by  the  New  York  press  has  an  object  beyond  the  Navy  proper,  though 
availing  itself  of  the  prejudices  of  such  naval  officers  as  are  inimical  to 
improvement  or  innovation.  I  trust,  my  dear  sir,  you  do  not  permit 
them  to  annoy  you.  They  say  the  monitors  are  built  especially  to  at- 
tack batteries,  whereas  the  primary  object  is  defensive,  and  when  a  for- 
eign war  seemed  imminent,  and  there  were  apprehensions  from  the 
Alabama,  Florida,  etc.,  in  New  York,  the  authorities  of  that  and  other 
cities,  the  Governors  of  the  States,  with  Committees  from  the  mer- 
chants and  others  appealed  to  the  Department  and  Government  for 
iron-clads  to  protect  them.  Such  would  be  the  case  again  were  we 
threatened  with  a  war  with  a  maritime  power.  My  confidence  in  the 
monitors  has  never  been  impaired  from  the  beginning.  Without  allud- 
ing to  their  other  qualities,  they  will  constitute  the  true  and  reliable 
defence  of  this  country  in  the  future  from  maritime  aggression. 

Fourteen  years  after  this  letter  was  written,  Mr.  Welles's 
prophecy  that  the  monitors  would  again  be  in  demand  were  a 
foreign  war  again  to  threaten,  was  justified. 

In  1875  war  with  Spain  was  imminent.  The  insurrection 
in  Cuba  had  then  lasted  some  seven  years,  and  was  accompa- 
nied by  a  constant  scries  of  aggressions  on  the  rights  of  person 
and  of  property  of  citizens  of  the  United  States.  The  Unit- 
ed States  felt  compelled  to  adopt  a  course  of  action  which,  in 
the  event  of  Spain's  resenting  it,  made  war  almost  inevitable. 

In  a  letter  written  to  George  M.  Robeson,  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  December  31,  1878,  the  Honorable  Hamilton  Fish,  late 
Secretary  of  State,  said  of  the  condition  of  things  at  the  time 
referred  to: 

Although  Spain  professed,  and  had  on  frequent  occasions  given  evi- 
dence of,  a  desire  to  repress  these  aggressions,  and  to  redress  them,  the 


ROLE   OF  THE   MONITOR.  101 

weakness  of  her  government,  with  the  Carlist  insurrection  on  her  hands 
at  home,  and  the  Cuban  insurrection  in  the  colonies,  with  the  frequent 
disregard  of  her  orders  by  the  colonial  authorities,  together  with  her 
own  traditional  habits  of  procrastination,  prevented  repression,  and  the 
condition  of  her  treasury  prevented  full  redress;  while  designing  men 
were  instituting  acts  of  wrong  against  our  Government  and  people, 
with  a  view  to  irritate  both  Government  and  people,  and  to  precipitate 
them  into  war.* 

There  was  every  expectation  that  our  Government  would 
be  obliged  to  interfere  and  stop  the  war  in  Cuba  at  the  time, 
for  official  notice  to  this  effect  had  been  sent  to  Madrid,  and 
the  Governments  of  England,  France,  Germany,  and  Russia 
were  asked  to  join  in  this  intervention.  Every  available  vessel 
of  the  Navy  was  concentrated  at  Port  Royal,  including  such 
monitors  as  were  in  repair.  The  utmost  haste  was  made  to 
put  in  condition  the  others.  *'I  thought  then,"  testified  Sec- 
retary Robeson  before  the  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs,  "and 
I  think  now  (January  16,  1879),  that  with  those  vessels  prop- 
erly repaired  and  put  in  efficient  condition,  we  would  have 
had  a  sufficient  iron-clad  fleet  for  the  protection  of  our  shores 
and  harbors;  not  an  iron-clad  fleet  that  could  go  abroad,  as  an 
aggressive  force,  but  a  fleet  sufficient  for  the  defensive  purposes 
of  a  peaceful  nation  like  our  own,  living  upon  our  own  conti- 
nent, isolated  from  the  powerful  governments  of  Europe." 

That  there  was  such  mounting  in  hot  haste  at  the  time  that 
war  with  Spain  threatened,  was  due  to  the  neglect  of  the  pre- 
cautions Ericsson  had  advised  at  an  earlier  date.  The  science 
of  naval  gunnery  made  rapid  progress  after  his  vessels  were 
completed,  and  experience  had  made  it  clear  that  the  armor  of 
thin  plates  interposed  one  upon  another,  which  he  was  com- 
pelled to  use,  was  much  inferior  to  the  armor  composed  of 
thicker  plates  such  as  the  rolling-mills  at  a  subsequent  date 
were  able  to  furnish.  Accordingly,  he  advised  that  the  moni- 
tors should  be  hauled  out  of  water  and  thoroughly  repaired, 
solid  armor  being  substituted  for  the  laminated  plating.  The 
monitor  fleet  was  reported  by  Admiral  Farragut  to  be  in  per- 
fect working  condition  at  the  end  of  the  war,  and  would  have 

♦Testimony  taken  before  the  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs,  January  15, 
1879. 


102  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

continued  so  if  the  vessels  had  been  taken  out  of  the  water  and 
their  bottoms  repainted,  instead  of  being  left  subject  to  the 
corrosive  influences  which,  even  in  fresh  water,  will  in  a  short 
time  prove  destructive. 

"  Placed  on  land  and  properly  taken  care  of,"  said  Ericsson, 
"  the  machinery  put  in  motion,  say  once  a  year,  vessels  like  the 
monitors  are  good  for  fifty  years."  Even  the  unfortunate 
light-draughts,  he  contended,  with  their  turrets  strengthened  by 
solid  plating,  might  be  made  useful  for  harbor-defence  vessels, 
"for,  be  it  remembei-ed,"  said  he,  "such  vessels  need  not  have 
great  speed.  The  work  to  be  done  by  them  is  that  of  attack- 
ing the  enemy's  ships,  not  on  the  coast,  but  after  the  entrance 
of  the  hostile  vessels,  while  taking  up  a  position  in  the  interior 
of  the  harbor."  Continuing,  he  says  :  "  It  is  hardly  necessary 
to  observe  that  at  the  present  moment  the  English  iron-clads, 
in  spite  of  our  forts  and  15-inch  guns  could  steam  up  to  the 
Battery,  Protected  by  iron  netting,  which  the  English  have 
lately  devised  for  harbor  attack,  our  proposed  torpedo  boats, 
with  their  twenty  feet  long  poles  with  a  powder  bag  at  the  end, 
would  be  laughed  at  by  our  assailants  ;  nor  would  stationary 
torpedoes  prove  any  protection  against  an  enterprising  enemy 
employing  mechanical  means  for  destroying  these  contrivances 
and  clearing  and  bnoying  the  passage  as  he  advances.  Per- 
manent obstructions  defended  by  forts  or  monitors  can  alone 
offer  effective  resistance. 

"  Xo  doubt  a  stationary  torpedo,  suspended  in  the  channel 
at  a  proper  depth  below  the  surface  of  the  water,  is  a  dangerous 
obstruction,  but  we  must  not  shut  our  eyes  against  the  obvious 
fact  that  these  structures  are  of  such  a  frail  character  that  they 
may  be  easily  destroyed.  Far  different  is  the  defence  offered 
by  a  monitor,  with  an  impregnable  turret  protecting  guns  capa- 
ble of  firing  heavy  projectiles  and  explosive  shells,  against  the 
enemy's  hulls  below  water-line.  Xo  other  system  of  defence 
can  compare  with  the  monitor,  whicli  cannot  be  run  down  by 
sea-going  iron-clads,  as  the  light  draught  enables  it  to  lay  in 
shoal  water  by  the  side  of  the  channel,  from  whence,  without 
fear  of  molestation,  the  approaching  ships  may  be  attacked 
while  entering  a  harbor.  Should  this  attack  fail,  the  moni- 
tor can  leisurely  follow  the  intruder  and  sink  him  while  tak- 


HOLE   OF   THE   MONITOR.  103 

ing  up  the  last  position  and  preparing  to  shell  the  assailed 
point."  * 

At  the  close  of  the  war  the  armor-clad  fleet  was  laid  up  in 
the  waters  of  the  Delaware,  at  Philadelphia,  presenting  a  sin- 
gular and  imposing  spectacle  as  the  creation  of  two  short 
years,  finding  no  parallel  in  military  and  naval  annals  ;  exhib- 
iting such  a  sum  total  of  destructive  energy  as  no  one  could 
have  imagined  possible  a  few  years  earlier.  Two  years  later 
Ericsson  informed  a  friend,  who  thought  of  visiting  this  place, 
that  he  would  then  find  "  a  fleet  of  iron-clads  subjected  to  the 
most  rapid  decay.  All  that  rotting  and  corrosion  can  do  to  de- 
stroy the  vessels  of  which  the  nation  expects  so  much  in  case 
of  need,  you  will,"  he  said,  "  find  in  active  progress."  In  an- 
swer to  a  request  from  the  Kavy  Department  he  had  written, 
in  March,  1S66,  showing  how  the  armor-clads  might  be  floated 
into  an  enclosed  basin  at  League  Island,  when  the  water  could 
be  pumped  out  until  it  was  needed  to  float  them  again.  "  A 
fleet  laid  up  as  I  propose,"  he  said,  "  is  good  for  half  a  century, 
all  excepting  some  repairs  about  the  armor  backing.  Engines, 
hulls,  boilers,  etc.,  may  be  kept  in  perfect  order,  and  in  twenty- 
four  hours  fifty  iron-clads  may  be  transferred  from  their  dry 
resting-place  on  the  surface  of  League  Island  to  the  Delaware 
with  stores  and  ammunition  on  board." 

*  Letter  to  WiUiam  C,  Church,  dated  February  19,  1872. 


CHAPTER   XXV. 

RIVALS    AXD   imTATORS. 

The  Monitors  of  the  British  Admiralty. — Money  Wasted  on  the  British 
Navy. — Tragic  Resuhs  of  Cowper  Coles's  Rivalry. — Letter  from 
Mrs.  Ericsson. — Claimants  for  the  Monitor. — Jonah  the  First  Sub- 
marine Navigator. 

MR.  JOHN  BOURNE,  who  devoted  himself  to  the  propa- 
gation of  the  monitor  idea  in  England,  was  indefatigable, 
and  determined  that  his  countrymen  should  have  the  advan- 
tage of  Ericsson's  system  and  of  Ericsson's  services.  Erics- 
son was  willing  to  assist,  with  the  stipulation,  as  he  informed 
ISIr.  Bourne,  that  he  was  not  to  be  put  in  the  position  of  inter- 
fering vrith  any  plans  of  his  friend  Fox,  who  also  had  an  idea 
of  introducing  the  monitor  to  Europe,  more  especially  to  Prus- 
sia. Ericsson  was  willing  to  assist  Fox,  as  he  proposed  to  as- 
sist Mr.  Bourne,  without  considering  the  question  of  pecuniary 
return  for  himself.  Xo  man  was  more  indifferent  to  money 
for  its  own  sake.  Assured  that  his  own  moderate  wants  were 
to  be  supplied,  he  had  no  concern  as  to  who  might  profit  by 
his  brains  and  his  industry. 

Taking  advantage  of  one  of  those  changes  of  administration 
so  common  in  England,  Mr.  Bourne  \NTote  (July  10  and  23,  1866) 
to  the  successor  of  the  "First  Lord"  who  had  answered  him 
so  cavalierly  when  he  approached  him  on  the  subject  of  moni- 
tors. He  showed,  by  a  reference  to  American  experience,  that 
the  thickness  of  armor  it  was  intended  to  use  in  England  was 
entirely  inadequate,  and  as  the  inevitable  result  of  carrying  out 
the  Admiralty  plans  the  work  would  all  have  to  be  done  over 
again.  He  pointed  out  "that  the  use  of  laminated  armor  was 
not  essential  to  the  monitor  system,"  and  that  the  "immense 
disadvantages"  of  artificial  ventilation  were  imaginary.  "I 
am,"  he  said,  "abeut  to  urge  its  adoption  upon  the  Peninsular 


RIVALS  AND  IMITATORS.  105 

and  Oriental  Company  for  their  steamers  in  the  East,  where 
every  expedient  of  nautical  ventilation  has  long  been  tried  with 
very  imperfect  results." 

Mr.  Bourne  based  his  conclusions  upon  the  fact  that  he  had 
given  more  attention  to  the  subject  he  discussed  "than  any 
other  engineer  in  England."  He  informed  Sir  John  Packing- 
ton  that  John  Penn,  the  eminent  engine  builder,  who  was 
"well  able  to  judge  of  Captain  Ericsson's  talents,"  was  ready,  if 
invited  to  do  so,  "to  construct  engines  after  Ericsson's  designs." 
He  urged  the  importance  of  giving  the  monitor  system  a  trial, 
"with  all  the  advantages  consequent  upon  the  co-operation  of 
its  author,  who  is  not  only  the  very  ablest  engineer  probably  of 
the  present  day,  but  who  has  been  able  to  mature  his  system 
by  the  aid  of  the  lights  afforded  by  experience  in  actual  war." 

Warned  by  Ericsson,  Mr.  Bourne  added  that  his  principal 
"would  not  be  disposed  to  make  any  official  tender  of  his  ser- 
vices, as  he  does  not  wish  to  press  them  upon  anyone,  or  to 
subject  himself  to  the  slight  of  official  repulse." 

This  letter  was  written  before  Sir  John  had  entered  upon  his 
oflScial  duties;  so  a  little  later  (September,  1866)  Mr.  Bourne 
made  a  formal  request,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  the  Secretary  of 
the  Admiralty,  that  he  might  be  allowed,  in  conjunction  with 
some  approved  English  manufacturer,  "to  tender  fer  monitors," 
believing  "that  the  result  would  be  to  produce  vessels  that 
were  quite  unrivalled  in  the  world." 

This  was  written  at  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  E.  J,  Reed,  Chief 
Constructor  of  the  British  Navy,  who  had  shown  a  friendly  dis- 
position, expressing  his  regret  that  he  was  absent  when  Mr. 
Bourne's  offer  was  sent  to  Whitehall,  and  saying:  "I  also 
very  much  regret  that  the  most  liberal  offer  of  Mr.  Ericsson 
has  been  declined.  I  certainly  should  have  accepted  it  had  the 
matter  rested  with  me."  (Letter  of  June,  1866.)  Calling  upon 
Mr.  Reed  September  2,  1866,  Mr.  Bourne  was  shown  designs 
for  turreted  vessels  prepared  by  Mr.  Reed  himself.  Conscious 
that  he  was  treading  on  delicate  ground.  Bourne  yet  ventured 
to  suggest  that  the  matter  of  adoption  of  these  designs  was  of 
great  importance  to  the  reputation  of  Mr.  Reed,  as  well  as  to 
the  interests  of  the  country.  Hence  he  urged  they  should  be 
kept  out  of  sight  until  their  author  had  an  opportunity  to  sub- 


106  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

mit  them  to  Ericsson.  "  Mr.  Reed,  on  this,  expressed  a  desire 
to  go  over  to  America  to  consult  you."  Bourne  wrote.  This 
desire,  as  the  result  shows,  was  not  acted  upon.  At  the  inter- 
view he  describes,  Mr.  Bourne  proposed  to  make  a  tender  for 
monitors,  to  be  built  from  plans  submitted  to  Ericsson  for  re- 
vision. "  This  arrangement,"  as  he  reported,  "  Mr.  Reed  at 
once  jumped  at  and  recommended  to  me  to  write  a  letter  to 
the  Admiralty  at  once.  A  draft  of  such  a  letter  was  made,  ap- 
proved of  by  Mr,  Reed,  and  sent  to  the  Admiralty." 

"  "Whatever  the  result,"  said  Mr.  Bourne,  "  I  shall  always 
feel  it  to  have  been  a  privilege  to  have  been  able  to  discern  and 
proclaim  the  superior  qualities  of  the  monitor  system  over  any- 
thing we  have  been  able  to  produce  in  this  country,  and  also  to 
have  been  placed  in  correspondence  with  one  whom  I  cannot 
but  recognize  as  the  leading  spirit  of  the  age  in  the  engineer- 
ing world." 

In  November,  1S66,  after  the  visit  of  the  Miantonomoh 
had  had  its  full  effect.  Bourne  reported  that  he  found  no  one 
in  England  who  would  "  venture  to  stand  up  against  the  moni- 
tor system.  In  common,"  he  said,  "  with  all  innovations,  it  had 
had  its  opponents  ;  but  never  was  there  any  innovation  so  com- 
pletely under  the  dominion  of  pure  reason,  or  one  the  efficiency 
and  advantages  of  which  could  be  so  conclusively  demonstra- 
ted." In  his  subsequent  arguments  with  Mr.  Reed,  Mr.  Bourne 
insisted  upon  the  use  of  armor  thicker  than  the  12-inch ;  he  in- 
tended to  adopt  18  inches  and  24  inches. 

The  use  of  such  heavy  armor,  as  he  very  well  knew,  in- 
volved all  the  other  details  of  the  monitor  construction.  The 
result  showed  that,  to  escape  this  dilemma,  the  English  and 
others  were  willing  to  leave  a  portion  of  the  surface  of  the  ar- 
mor-clads  exposed  to  penetration  ;  sacrificing  the  protection 
Ericsson  insisted  upon,  rather  than  antagonize  the  ideas  of 
British  sailors  as  to  what  comfort  demanded.  It  is  curious 
how,  in  the  cycle  of  change,  this  element  of  comfort,  so  essen- 
tial to  those  whose  life  is  on  the  sea,  has  again  been  sacrificed 
to  the  imperative  necessities  of  war.  A  son  of  the  Prince  of 
"Wales,  in  command  of  a  modern  torpedo  boat,  during  the  in- 
spection or  manoeuvres,  in  the  summer  of  1889,  was  obliged  to 
occupy  with  two  others  a  cabin  ten  feet  by  twelve. 


BIVALS   AND   IMITATORS.  107 

Mr.  Bourne  was  too  confident :  It  was  not  until  more  than 
a  year  later  (March  7,  186S)  that  the  London  Times  was  heard 
declaring  that  "  the  final  blow  had  been  given  to  the  already 
tottering  theory  of  broadside  iron-clads."  "  Why,"  it  is  then 
said,  "  do  we  obstinately  refuse  to  build  small  iron-clads,  single- 
turreted  vessels,  with  low  freeboard  and  one  or  two  guns  of  the 
heaviest  calibre.  The  American  and  Russian  officers  who  have 
actually  tried  them,  report  with  enthusiasm  of  their  sea-going 
properties.  It  seems  to  us  that  the  Admiralty  have  in  noth- 
ing so  neglected  their  duty  as  in  failing  to  provide  us  with  a 
large  supply  of  these  formidable  little  vessels." 

Mr.  Bourne  read  before  the  Institution  of  Civil  Engineers  a 
paper  on  Monitors,  and  was  awarded  therefor  their  Watt  medal 
and  Telford  premium.  This  paper  started  a  discussion,  and 
during  this  Mr.  Reed  produced  his  plans  for  the  Devastation 
and  Thunderer^  both  mastless,  armored,  sea-going  turret-ships. 
Of  these  British  ships  the  Dictator  and  Puritan  were  confess- 
edly "  the  progenitors."  In  his  elaborate  work  upon  the  Brit- 
ish Xavy,  Sir  Thomas  Brassey  says  "  the  American  monitors, 
Dictator  and  Puritan^  were  certainly  the  progenitors  of  our 
Devastation  type."  *  This  type  was  not  adopted  in  England 
until  1869,  or  seven  years  after  the  Dictator  had  been  put  in 
hand.  It  was  especially  commended  by  the  British  "  Commit- 
tee on  Design,"  composed  of  the  ablest  naval  officers  and  most 
eminent  engineers,  and  was  then  regarded  "  as  the  type  to 
which  all  first-class  fighting  ships  would  have  to  approximate 
in  future." 

In  1864,  two  small  monitors,  the  Scorj^^ion  and  the  Wyvern^ 
were  constructed  in  England  for  the  Confederates.  These 
were  seized  by  the  English  authorities  and  subsequently  pur- 
chased by  the  British  Government.  Being  the  first  monitors 
built  in  England,  they  were  inferior  to  the  American  ships,  but 
their  trials  gave  fairly  satisfactory  results,  and  led  to  the  con- 
struction of  two  larger  turret-ships,  the  Royal  Sovereign  and 
the  Prince  Albert.^  These  vessels  were  inferior  in  every  re- 
spect to  the  Ericsson  monitors.  The  Wyvern  rolled  twenty-two 
degrees,  so  that  she  was  unable  to  work  her  guns  in  a  seaway, 

*  See  The  British  Navy,  by  Sir  Thomas  Brassey,  vol.  I ,  p.  134 
t  Ibid.,  p.  16. 


lOS  UFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

The  Royal  Sovcrcir/n  was  an  old  three-decker,  originally  pierced 
for  one  hundred  and  twenty  guns,  and  altered  to  test  the  theories 
of  Captain  Cowper  Coles,  the  officer  of  the  British  Xavy  who 
sought  to  appropriate  the  honors  due  Captain  Ericsson  for  the 
Monitor.  The  Prince  Albert  was  a  new  vessel  built  after 
Coles's  plans.  As  has  been  seen,  Mr.  Reed,  Chief  Constructor, 
had  the  good  sense  to  oppose  the  adoption  of  the  ideas  of  Cap- 
tain Coles  and  to  favor  those  of  Ericsson.  But  in  his  Devasta- 
tion and  Thunderer  he,  too,  sought  to  improve  upon  Ericsson, 
departing  in  essential  particulars  from  the  monitor  idea  of  sub- 
stituting concentration  for  diffusion.  The  result  was  that,  long 
before  these  vessels  were  finished,  guns  appeared  that  could 
pierce  their  inadequate  armor  through  and  through. 
In  1877  Mr.  Bourne  said: 

If  Ericsson's  aid  had  been  obtained,  our  Xavy  would  have  been  in  a 
very  different  position  at  the  present  moment  from  what  it  is  actually 
in.  Millions  of  money  would  have  been  saved  to  the  state,  and  the  na- 
tion would  have  felt  itself  secure,  instead  of  being  oppressed  by  the 
conviction  that  all  we  have  hitherto  done  in  the  way  of  armored  vessels 
is  futile  and  unavailing,  and  on  the  outbreak  of  war  we  should  find  our- 
selves to  be  virtually  defenceless.  At  present  our  Xavy  is  a  by-word. 
Our  sailors  are,  no  doubt,  as  good  as  ever.  The  fault  is  in  our  ships, 
and  is  traceable  to  the  fact  that  in  a  great  transition  period  we  have  had 
no  leading  mind  competent  to  direct  the  course  of  the  transformation. 

Lords  of  the  Admiralty  are,  as  a  rule,  incompetent  to  appreciate 
such  men  as  Ericsson,  or  even  to  discern  the  need  of  a  great  genius  to 
successfully  work  out  great  innovations.  Left  to  themselves,  they  are 
content  with  worn-out  methods  and  with  the  counsels  of  stagnant  medi- 
ocrity, and  are  utterly  powerless  to  devise  a  course  of  action  when  some 
new  difficulty  has  to  be  confronted.  It  is  under  such  circumstances  as 
those  which  have  prevailed  since  the  introduction  of  armor-clads,  that 
the  aid  of  such  a  man  as  Ericsson — confessedly  the  greatest  engineering 
genius  of  the  age — becomes  of  incalculable  value;  and  the  stolidity 
which  neglected  to  avail  itself  of  his  aid  while  still  accessible,  must  ever 
be  reprobated  and  lamented.  ...  At  present  this  much  at  least  is 
clear,  that,  spite  of  so  large  an  expenditure,  we  have  no  efficient  shot- 
proof  navy,  nor  have  we  any  military  instrument  yet  matured  and  avail- 
able to  act  as  a  substitute.     Our  naval  authorities  are  confessedly  at  sea.* 

Naval  authorities  are  quite  as  much  at  sea  now  as  they 
were  then,  and  England  continues  to  build  at  an  enormous  ex- 
•  The  Past  and  Future  of  Ships  of  War,  by  John  Bourne,  C.E. 


RIVALS  AND   IMITATORS.  109 

pense  vessels  which  the  first  naval  war  will  render  obsolete; 
for  no  other  apparent  reason  than  that  other  nations  are  doing 
the  same.  She  craves  two  ships  to  every  one  possessed  by 
any  other  nation,  and  it  is  the  theory  of  British  naval  authori- 
ties that  they  must  be  prepared  to  resist  a  combined  attack 
from  any  two  naval  powers. 

After  much  discussion  Captain  Coles  had  succeeded,  in 
1869,  in  persuading  the  Admiralty  to  build  a  vessel  more  ex- 
actly representing  his  ideas  than  those  previously  constructed. 
This  was  a  vessel  of  4,272  tons,  completed  at  a  cost  of  nearly 
two  millions  of  dollars.  In  this  Coles  undertook  to  combine  a 
great  spread  of  canvas  with  low  sides.  By  an  error  in  his  cal- 
culations the  vessel  had  two  feet  less  freeboard  than  he  in- 
tended, her  deck  being  only  six  feet  above  the  water-line,  in- 
stead of  eight,  as  proposed.  She  was  completed  in  1870,  and 
on  the  7th  of  June  in  that  year  Mr.  John  Laird,  who  had  built 
her,  said,  in  a  letter  to  Ericsson:  "I  send  you  a  paper  to-day 
with  some  report  of  the  cruise  of  the  Captain  with  the  fleet. 
All  that  is  said  in  the  paper  is  confirmed  by  letters  from  offi- 
cers on  board  the  vessel.  One  night  they  had  a  strong  gale 
and  wind  at  force  10,  and  the  ship  lay  under  close-reefed 
main-top  sails  and  reefed  foresail.  She  was  pronounced  by  all 
on  board  to  be  the  most  perfect  sea-boat  they  were  ever  in. 
She  tacks,  stays,  wears,  and  works  as  well  as  any  old  line-of- 
battle  ship,  and  my  correspondent  adds  that  '  the  way  in  which 
this  ship  works  and  answers  her  helm  is  most  striking.'" 

Mr.  Laird's  correspondent  on  board  the  Captain  would  ap- 
pear to  have  been  her  enthusiastic  designer,  Cowper  Coles  him- 
self. Toward  the  close  of  1870  the  Captain  made  one  or  two 
successful  cruises.  "The  excess  in  her  draught  of  water  was 
not  considered  serious,  and  as  she  appeared  to  be  a  good  sea- 
boat  no  notice  was  taken  of  it.  Her  stability  was  never  doubt- 
ed by  her  designers;  nor,  indeed,  was  her  critical  state  ever 
properly  realized  by  anyone;  any  doubt  that  may  have  existed 
was  smothered  by  the  confidence  of  her  advocates.  The  chorus 
of  praise  which  she  elicited  on  all  sides  continued  to  increase, 
and  the  question  as  to  what  the  tv'pe  of  the  British  war-ship 
for  the  future  should  be  was  supposed  to  be  settled  in  her  be- 
yond dispute." 


110  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

Then  came  the  dreadful  uews  that  she  had  gone  down, 
during  the  night  between  the  Gth  and  7th  of  September,  1870, 
off  Cape  Finisterre.  The  wind  had  not  been  unusually  violent ; 
the  sea  had  not  been  exceptionally  heavy  ;  there  were  no  ex- 
tenuating circumstances;  she  had  not  bravely  battled  with  even 
ordinary  rough  weather;  she  was  proceeding  confidently  under 
steam  and  sails  when,  in  an  ordinary  squall,  she  displayed  once 
for  all  her  subtle  and  treacherous  character  by  slowly  turning 
over  and  becoming  the  coffin  of  nearly  the  whole  of  her  crew, 
some  five  hundred  men,  including  a  large  number  of  accom- 
plished officers.  The  people  of  England  were  almost  panic- 
stricken  at  this  terrible  news.  How  it  could  have  occurred  with 
the  comparatively  wide-spread  knowledge  relating  to  the  sub- 
ject and  the  facts  and  figures  of  her  special  case  before  them, 
it  was  difficult  to  conceive."  *  It  was  the  disregard  of  hydro- 
static laws  shown  bj'  Captain  Coles  in  his  attempt  to  combine 
low  freeboard  with  high  sailing  qualities  that  led  to  this  dis- 
aster. "  Low  freeboard,"  said  Ericsson,  "  unquestionably  in- 
sures a  steady  platform  for  the  guns,  but  if  made  as  low  as 
it  should  be  to  secure  the  great  object  in  view,  protection 
against  shot,  it  is  incompatible  with  sailing  qualities.  In  fine, 
Jow  freeboard  is  only  applicable  to  the  fighting  machine,  the 
genuine  monitor.'"' 

Coles  was  ambitious  to  carry  on  his  cupola  vessel  as  much 
sail  as  a  first-rate  three-decker,  and  his  spread  of  canvas  and 
load  of  top-hamper  were  too  much  for  a  vessel  having  such 
small  stability  as  the  Captain.  When  last  seen  she  was  carry- 
ing royals,  she  was  encumbered  with  a  hurricane-deck  twenty  or 
thirty  feet  above  the  sea-level,  and  upon  this  deck  were  stored 
boats,  anchors,  and  all  the  gear  necessary  to  work  the  ship. 
This  top-weight,  in  addition  to  two  massive  turrets  of  twenty- 
seven  feet  diameter  and  ponderous  side-armor,  was  too  much 
for  a  vessel  pushed  over  beyond  the  line  of  safety  by  the  lever- 
age of  her  masts  and  sails.  In  the  Captain  was  witnessed  the 
application  of  the  suggestions  for  supposed  improvement  of  the 
monitor  system  constantly  thrust  upon  Ericsson  by  influential 
advisers,  and  to  which  he  opposed  the  strength  of  his  sound 
iudgment  and  his  inflexible  will. 

•  The  British  Navj,  bj  Sir  Thomas  Brasaey,  K.C.B.,  vol.  i.,  p.  346. 


RIVALS   AND    IMITATORS.  H] 

In  the  "Life  of  Sir  John  Burgoyne,"  father  of  the  naval 
officer  who  commanded  the  Cajptain,  we  are  told  that  she  was 
looked  upon  as  the  acknowledged  model  of  the  war-ships  of  the 
future,  and  that  most  of  the  Government  officials  who  had  sons 
in  the  Xavy  had  asked  for  appointments  in  lier,  and  amonc.  her 
complement  of  officers  she  carried  sons  of  Lord  Herbert*^  for- 
merly Secretary  of  State  for  War,  Mr.  Childers,  the  First  Lo'rd  of 
the  Admiralty,  Lord  Xorthbrook,  the  Under-secretary  of  State 
tor  War,  Colonel  Boxer,  the  head  of  the  Laboratory  Depart- 
ment   and  Captain  Gordon,  the  principal  Comptroller  at  the 
Koyal  Arsenal.    One  of  her  lieutenants  was  Lord  Lewis  Gordon 
a  brother  of  the  Marquis  of  Huntly,  and  as  guests  with  her  com- 
mander were  her  inventor.  Captain  Cowper  Coles  and  a  son  of 
Admiral  Sir  Baldwin  Walker,  the  former  Comptroller  of  the 
Admiralty      At  the  special  request  of  her  designer,  Captain 
Burgoyne  had  been  selected  to  command  her,  and  she  had  on 
board  a  picked  crew,  many  of  whom  had  volunteered  for  her 
owing  to  the  popularity  of  her  captain. 

Over  a  tombstone  in  the  parish  church  of  Scole,  Suffolk 
Lngland,  hangs  a  boat-flag  which  drifted  ashore  from  the  Cap- 
tain  on  the  Bay  of  Biscay.  It  marks  the  cenotaph  of  her  un- 
fortunate designer.  His  fate  and  the  fate  of  his  vessel,  so  un- 
precedented in  naval  annals,  are  the  best  answer  to  the  claims 
he  presented  during  his  life.  In  connection  with  the  less  mel- 
ancholy, but  even  more  costly,  experience  of  the  light-draught 
monitors,  they  emphasize,  as  no  expenditure  of  rhetoric  could 
nie  wonderful  mastery  Ericsson  possessed  of  nautical  problems' 
ihe  stupendous  failures  of  others,  wlio  undertook  the  solution 
ot  the  same  problems,  present  his  great  success  in  sharper  out- 
lines. ^ 

Contrasting  this  experience  with  that  of  Coles,  "  the  son 
of  an  old  naval  officer  "  *  said  : 

Such  then,  are  the  respective  achievements  of  Coles  and  Ericsson  in 
regard  to  the  invention  and  construction  of  turret-vessels.  But,  apart 
from  aU  recapitulation  of  the  facts  such  as  I  have  given,  the  presump- 

rh!     ,  V.'     r^^^     "'  ^°  "^^   ^1^"^*^°^  *°^^^^"^  t^«   authorship   of 
such  an  elaborate  improvement,  that  it  is  to  Ericsson,  and  not  to  Coles, 

*  Captain  Coles  and  the  Admiralty.     London  :  Longman,  Green  &  Co. 


112  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

that  we  are  indebted  for  it.  It  is  no  disparagement  of  Captain  Coles  to 
say  that,  until  this  turret  controversy  arose,  his  name  had  never  been 
heard  of  out  of  his  own  domestic  circle;  and  he  makes  no  pretensions 
to  mechanical  genius,  such  as  distinguished  the  late  Earl  of  Dundonald, 
or  even  to  any  such  commonplace  acquaintance  with  mechanical  re- 
sources as  ordinary  engineers  and  ship-huilders  must  necessarily  pos- 
sess. On  the  other  hand,  Ericsson  is  known  to  be  distinguished,  not 
merely  by  remarkable  inventive  genius,  but  for  the  last  forty  years  he 
has  been  stamped  as  one  of  the  most  skilful  engineers  of  the  age, 
and  one  who  has  all  the  qualifications  necessary  for  working  out  his 
conceptions  to  a  practical  and  successful  issue.  While,  therefore,  a 
perfect  and  cflBcient  turret  system  would  be  too  much  to  expect  from 
Coles,  it  would  not  be  too  much  to  expect  from  Ericsson;  all  his  ante- 
cedents and  his  known  talents  being  such  as  to  warrant  us  in  expect- 
ing from  him  the  highest  measure  of  improvement  that  the  present  age 
can  produce 

Not  only  is  Ericsson  a  profibient  mechanic,  but  an  able  officer  of  the 
Military  Engineers;  and  in  regard  to  the  penetrating  power  of  guns, 
and  to  a  correct  estimate  of  the  resisting  power,  he  had  attained  pretty 
near  as  much  progress  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  {i.  c,  in  1841)  as  we 
have  reached  in  the  present  day. 

From  such  a  man  the  production  of  a  new  and  more  powerful  sys- 
tem of  armament  and  defence  might  reasonably  be  expected;  whereas, 
nothing  short  of  a  miracle  could  enable  an  amateur  mechanic,  of  slow 
imagination,  and  confessedly  destitute  of  all  practical  resources,  suc- 
cessfully to  achieve  such  an  important  work. 

The  persistent  writing  and  arguing  and  presenting  of 
"claims"  by  Cowper  Coles  and  his  friends,  did  much  to  bring 
the  monitor  or  turret  system  into  discredit,  at  least  in  Eng- 
land, where  it  was  confused  with  Coles's  "cupola"  system,  to 
which  it  bore  only  a  superficial  resemblance.  The  idea  of  pro- 
tecting guns  by  shields,  as  Captain  Coles  claimed,  first  occurred 
to  him  in  1855,  the  year  after  Ericsson's  letter  to  Napoleon; 
but  it  is  obvious  that,  whatever  the  idea  was.  Coles  was  unable 
to  present  it  in  practical  shape  until  the  Monitor  appeared. 
Then  he  sought  to  graft  his  crude  notions  upon  a  system  com- 
plete and  perfect  in  itself.  His  punishment  was  dramatic  in 
its  promptness  and  severity. 

Coles's  misleading  efforts  to  enlighten  the  public,  with  ref- 
erence to  the  merits  of  a  system  he  had  confused  with  his 
own,  gave  Ericsson  great  annoyance,  and  they  began  as  soon  as 
the  Monitor  was  heard  from  in  Hampton    Roads.     A  month 


RIVALS  AND  IMITATORS.  113 

after  her  appearance  there  Mrs.  Ericsson  wrote  this  letter  to 
her  husband: 

2  Canning  Place,  Kensington  Gate,  April  7th. 

I  send  the  Times  in  order  that  you  may  peruse  the  infamous  attempt 
of  claiming  your  invention  as  England's  production.  The  time  will  ap- 
pear to  me  an  age  before  you  can  repudiate  this  mean  and  paltry  as- 
sumption; but,  of  course,  comparison  of  chimneys,  etc.,  etc.,  which  you 
must  submit  to  Europe,  can  stand  the  test  no  doubt  of  your  undivided 
claim.  I  think  it  is  a  pity  you  have  no  one  here  conversant  with  the  in- 
vention to  represent  your  interests.  Would  it  not  be  worth  while  to 
have  some  agent  here?  It  is  disgraceful  that  others  should  stand  up 
and  profess  to  be  the  origin  of  this  great  crisis  in  warfare.  It  will  seem 
an  age  to  me  ere  you  can  possibly  give  refutation  to  Captain  Coles's  as- 
sertion. Still,  I  feel  England  will  be  again  startled  by  the  proofs  you 
can  undoubtedly  bring  to  light  of  your  legitimate  claim. 

With  earnest  desire  that  you  may  conquer  your  enemies  here, 

I  am,  as  ever, 

A.  Ericsson. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  every  mechanical  device  connected  with 
the  system,  so  triumphantly  vindicated  under  the  stress  of  war, 
was  the  product  of  Ericsson's  fertile  brain.  A  fact  the  more 
remarkable,  since,  as  I  have  shown,  the  exigency  of  the  times 
did  not  admit  of  previous  experiments,  everything  being  de- 
spatched directly  from  the  foundry  and  workshop  to  the  field 
of  battle.  Contrast  this  with  the  mishaps  and  failures  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Atlantic!  The  Captain  is  the  chief  but  not 
the  only  example.  England  wasted  in  experiment  more  than 
the  United  States  expended  in  creating  its  entire  monitor  fleet, 
and  in  addition,  at  the  end  of  our  Civil  War  the  mother-coun- 
try had  invested  §250,000,000  in  broadside  vessels,  and  these, 
by  the  confession  of  the  London  Times,  were  rendered  anti- 
quated by  our  experiences  with  the  monitors  under  the  actual 
conditions  of  battle.  Yes,  wasted  in  experiment,  for  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic  we  had  already  settled  the  questions  still 
in  process  of  investigation  by  that  body  of  gentlemen  whose 
career  has  proved  a  cogent  agreement,  a  posteriori,  against  the 
once  mooted  scheme  for  establishing  an  Admiralty  Board  in 
the  United  States. 

While  England,  in  spite  of  the  protests  of  Bourne  and 
others,  was  building  its  vessels  with  inadequate  protection,  and 
Vol.  II.— 8 


114  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

conducting  costly  experiments  to  determine  the  resistance  of 
iron  plates,  the  destructive  effect  of  fifteen-inch  solid  shot  with 
sixty-pound  charges  had  set  at  rest  all  speculation.  Twelve 
and  fifteen  inches  of  solid  iron  were  adopted  as  the  stand- 
ard, and  such  thickness  of  armor  required  the  use  of  the 
monitor. 

Cowper  Coles  was  not  alone  in  his  assertion  of  priority,  and 
his  claim,  if  not  established,  was  certainly  as  well  founded  as 
that  of  others  on  whose  behalf  the  same  claim  has  been  pre- 
sented. In  considering  these  claimants  in  their  order,  it  is 
proper  to  give  first  place  to  Mr.  Charles  Dudley  "Warner,  as 
the  representative  of  the  Jewish  prophet  whose  history  fur- 
nishes the  first  recorded  case  of  strictly  submarine  naviga- 
tion. "  Thanks  to  an  enduring  piece  of  literature,"  says 
Mr.  "Warner,  "  the  uuheroic  Jonah  and  his  whale  are  better 
known  than  St.  Jerome  and  his  lion.  .  .  .  He  in  a  man- 
ner anticipated  the  use  of  the  monitor  and  other  submerged 
sea-vessels."  * 

So  "  in  a  manner"  did  Mr.  T.  R.  Tiraby,  for  whom  the 
monitor  turret  has  been  claimed,  anticipate  Ericsson,  but  no 
more  than  Jonah  did  he  furnish  Ericsson  with  the  idea  of  a 
submerged  vessel,  with  the  turret  as  its  visible  and  outward 
sign.  True,  Ericsson's  associates,  who  were  shrewd  men  of 
business,  thought  it  worth  while  to  invest  a  moderate  sum  in 
securing  control  of  Timby's  ideas,  at  a  time  when  controversy 
was  to  be  avoided.  They  sought  afterward  to  make  this  pur- 
chase available  by  building  land  turrets  for  the  Government 
on  Timby's  plan,  but  in  this  enterprise  Ericsson  refused  to  join 
them. 

"Writing  to  a  friend,  Ericsson  said  : 

A  house,  or  turret,  turning  on  a  pivot  for  protecting  apparatus  in- 
tended to  throw  warlike  projectiles,  is  an  ancient  device  ;  I  believe  was 
known  among  the  Greeks.  Thinking  back,  I  cannot  fix  anv  period  of 
mv  life  at  which  I  did  not  know  of  its  existence.  A  ship  of  war  pro- 
vided with  a  turret  capable  of  turning  toward  any  point  of  the  compass, 
as  in  the  Monitor,  is,  however,  original  with  me.  Many  attempts  have 
been  made  to  deprive  me  of  the  credit  of  such  a  device,  but  they  have 
all  failed. 

•  In  the  Levant,  by  Charles  Dudley  Warner. 


RIVALS   AND  IMITATORS.  115 

Timby's  revolving  turret  is  a  totally  different  invention,  presenting 
Bome  advantages  and  many  radical  defects.     It  is  a  cylindrical  iron  cita- 
del for  harbor  defence,  with  many  floors,  each  floor  carrying  a  large 
number  of  guns  operated  on  fixed  radial  slides.     Placed  near  the  en 
trance  of  a  harbor,  it  is  kept  continually  revolving  when  the  enemy  is 
near,  each  gun  being  fired  in  succession  the  instant  it  bears  on  an  un- 
lucky intruder.     Should  the  rotation  by  any   cause  be  stopped    the 
whole  structure  with  its  numerous  guns  becomes  useless,  since  each  gun 
points  unalterably  in  a  different  direction.     Obviously,  the  grand  idea  is 
that  of  concentrated  fire  on  an  approaching  ship,  there  being  but  a  few 
seconds  between  each  shot  if  the  turret  is  turned  rapidly.     Timby  hav- 
ing stated  in  his  patent  that  the  invention  was  intended  "  for  land  or 
water  "  (meaning,  of  course,  that  like  many  other  forts  it  might  be  built 
in  the  water),  claimed,  as  soon  as  the  3Ionitor  had  proved  a  success,  that 
1  had  infringed.      My  generous  partners  in  the  Mo7iitor  enterprise   de- 
sirous of  securing  an  interest  in  the  grand  revolving  turret,  which  they 
supposed  would  be  employed  to  protect  every  harbor  in  the  country  at 
once  took  Timby  by  the  hand,  and  paid  him  a  sum  of  monev,  partly  taken 
out  of  my  pocket.     Timby  got  his  original  patent  reissued  in  such  form 
that  my  disinterested  partners  imagined  that  they  held  my  patent      Civil 
engineers  of  the  highest  standing  at  once  prepared  drawings  of  my 
friends  harbor  defence  turrets;  but  practical  Lincoln,  well  advised  by 
nay  friend  Fox,  could  not  see  that  the  safety  of  the  country  demanded 
the  immediate  erection  of  Timby 's  turrets.* 

Floating  batteries,  protected  by  heavy  wooden  bulwarks  to 
secure  impregnability,  have  been  resorted  to  in  the  naval  wars 
of  Europe  for  centuries.  Ten  such  batteries  were  constructed 
by  the  Spanish  Chevalier  D'Arcon  for  his  attack  upon  Gibraltar 
September  13,  1782.  Their  wooden  hulls  were  protected  by 
bars  of  iron,  and  an  outer  covering  or  belt  of  cork.  But  they 
were  not  proof  against  fire,  and  with  the  aid  of  red-hot  shot 
they  were  destroyed,  five  blowing  up  and  five  burning  to  the 
water's  edge,  only  487  out  of  5,260  men  being  saved. 

But  none  of  the  earlier  protected  batteries  were  monitors 
Ericsson's  vessel  was  a  distinct  and  novel  conception,  showing 
a  perfect  unity  of  design,  one  part  growing  necessarily  out  of 
another,  and  the  whole  presenting  the  most  perfect  possible  so- 
lution of  the  problem  of  securing  the  maximum  amount  of  gun- 
power  with  the  minimum  amount  of  exposure  for  vessel  and 
crew.  The  success  of  his  system  was  dependent  upon  the  feat- 
*  Letter  to  R.  B.  Forbes,  November  29,  1884. 


116  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

ures  in  which  it  differed  from,  and  not  on  those  in  which  it 
resembled,  others.     For  himself  Ericsson  says: 


The  invention  submitted  to  the  Emperor  of  the  French  had  en- 
gaged my  attention  since  1826;  in  fact,  it  has  been  the  hobby  of  my 
Hfe  to  destroy  large  ships  of  war  by  small,  nearly  submerged,  and  par- 
tially impregnable  vessels.  The  idea  of  employing  iron  for  this  purpose 
dates  back  to  the  first  conception.  But  the  idea  of  casing  large  ships 
with  iron  I  do  not  claim.  In  truth  I  have  always  been  opposed  to  it,  as 
a  practical  absurdity.  Before  the  introduction  of  the  modern  levia- 
thans I  had  fully  demonstrated  that  ships  could  not  be  made  shot-proof 
and  retain  sufficient  buoyancy  for  practical  purposes;  hence,  when  Mr. 
R.  L.  Stevens  proposed  to  protect  his  intended  steam  frigate  with  iron, 
I  asserted  that  the  scheme  was  impracticable.  Captain  Stockton,  of  the 
U.  S.  Navy,  in  1841  asked  my  professional  opinion  on  the  subject,  stat- 
ing that  Mr.  Stevens's  calculations  proved  that  his  proposed  steam  frig- 
ate could  readily  carry  the  weight  of  armor  necessary. 

To  my  query  what  thickness  had  been  estimated.  Captain  Stockton 
said  that  Mr.  Stevens  had  fully  established  the  fact  that  4J-inch  thick- 
ness would  effectually  resist  shot,  and  that  accordingly  his  estimates 
were  based  on  that  thickness.  I  then  informed  Captain  S.  that  on 
dynamic  consideration  a  solid  shot  from  a  12-inch  gun,  fired  with  a 
30-pound  charge  of  powder  would,  at  short  range,  infallibly  penetrate 
4^-inch  thick  plating.  A  target  was  accordingly  made  of  this  thickness 
and  placed  before  a  12-inch  wrought-iron  gun,  fired  at  short  range 
with  the  stated  charge.  The  shot,  weighing  224  pounds,  pierced  the 
target  as  easily  as  an  ordinary  boiler-plate  is  perforated  by  a  powerful 
punch. 

Mr.  Stevens's  calculations  having  thus  been  proven  erroneous,  the  in- 
tended construction  of  an  invulnerable  steam  frigate  by  the  United  States 
Government  was  postponed  for  many  years,  during  which  he  made  a 
number  of  experiments  to  ascertain  the  resisting  power  of  wrought-iron 
plates  of  different  thickness  and  placed  at  different  angles  to  the  line 
of  fire.  The  result  of  these  experiments,  never  published,  demonstrated 
that  the  sides  of  steam  frigates  cannot,  as  supposed  when  the  plan  was 
first  laid  before  the  Government,  be  covered  with  armor-plates  of  suffi- 
cient thickness  to  resist  heavy  projectiles.  At  what  period  Mr.  Stevens 
adopted  the  plan  of  partial  submersion — intended  to  be  applied  to  the 
vessel  which  he  left  half  finished  at  his  death — is  not  known.  Nor  does 
it  appear  that  he  had  quite  determined  the  strength  of  the  armor,  or 
the  manner  of  applying  it.  Experienced  engineers  who  have  examined 
the  intended  battery,  as  it  is  called,  are  unable  to  understand  how  Mr. 
Stevens  intended  to  support  heavy  armor  on  the  exceedingly  frail  hull, 
the  side  plates  of  which  are  only  ^  inch  in  thickness. 

With  respect  to  priority  of  invention,  I  have  to  say  that,  as  far  as 


RIVALS  AND  IMITATORS.  117 

my  knowledge  extends,  I  believe  that  Mr.  Robert  L.  Stevens  was  the 
first  person  proposing  to  protect  the  sides  of  war  steamers  with,  or  to 
build  their  sides  of,  plate  iron  sufficiently  thick  to  resist  shot.  For  my 
own  part  I  disdain  having  ever  suggested  such  a  plan,  because  during 
my  earliest  investigations  I  found  that  such  were  the  conditions  im- 
posed by  hydrostatic  laws  in  connection  with  the  strength  and  weight 
of  materials,  that  absolute  security  against  shot  could  only  be  attained 
by  an  almost  entire  submersion.  The  strange-looking  craft  which  ir- 
reparably damaged  the  Confederate  cause  at  Hampton  Roads  was  built 
in  accordance  with  those  early  views,  which  I  have  not,  up  to  this  time, 
had  reason  to  change,  although  a  fleet  of  fifty  iron-clads  have,  in  the 
meantime,  been  constructed  in  strict  accordance  with  those  views,  and 
ample  experience  gained  during  numerous  engagements  with  a  skilful 
and  well-armed  adversary.* 

A  claim  to  the  invention  of  the  monitor,  scarcely  more 
absurd  than  the  others,  was  contained  in  two  letters  sent  to 
Ericsson,  the  year  before  his  death,  by  a  colored  resident  of 
Philadelphia.  With  evident  sincerity  he  stated  that,  when  he 
was  a  waiter  at  a  New  York  restaurant  in  the  first  year  of  the 
war,  he  had  folded  a  napkin  and  put  it  on  the  table  by  the 
side  of  a  gentleman  upon  whom  he  was  attending,  and  sug- 
gested the  building  of  a  gunboat  like  the  model  thus  indicated. 
Subsequently  learning  that  this  gentleman  was  John  Ericsson, 
he  had  presented  his  case  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  who 
had  advised  him  to  write  to  Ericsson.  "The  late  Hon.  Robert 
Toombs,"  concluded  this  claimant,  "said  that  the  colored  race 
had  done  nothing  worthy  of  remembrance  in  the  history  of 
this  or  any  other  country.  I  can  say  I  done  much  when  I 
folded  the  model  that  prevented  him  and  his  party  from  de- 
stroying this  greatest  nation  in  the  world." 

True,  emancipated  brother,  for  if  you  have  done  nothing 
else,  you  have  at  least  helped  to  present  in  proper  light  the  ab- 
surdity of  claims  to  Ericsson's  invention,  on  behalf  of  men  who 
were  no  more  capable  of  developing  the  monitor  in  its  entirety 
than  were  you  with  your  folded  napkin. 

Antecedent  to  the  war  bringing  the  monitor  to  light,  Erics- 
son had  made  more  improvements  in  war-ships  than  any  other 
man;  improvements  copied  first  by  France  and  then  by  Eng- 
land,  without    acknowledgment.     Whenever    any    emergency 

*  Letter  to  Bourne,  January  16,  1866. 


118  LIFE  OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

had  appealed  to  liim  with  sufficient  power  to  direct  his  atten- 
tion to  the  subject,  he  liad  devoted  the  resources  of  his  great 
engineering  mind  to  the  development  of  naval  science,  and 
always  with  the  most  marked  results.  His  claim  to  priority, 
therefore,  rests,  not  only  upon  his  own  testimony  and  the  doc- 
umentary evidence  he  has  presented  in  support  of  his  state- 
ments, but  on  the  strong  presumption  in  favor  of  a  man  so  ex- 
ceptionally endowed  as  he  undoubtedly  was.  As  against  Coles, 
this  presumption,  independently  of  testimony,  is  that  Erics- 
son, of  all  men,  was  the  one  most  likely  to  have  invented  the 
improvements  in  controversy.  He  had  already  given  proof  of 
the  possession  of  the  attainments  required  for  such  a  task — one 
demanding  an  amount  of  engineering  talent  not  to  be  expected 
in  an  ordinary  naval  captain. 

Somewhat  upon  the  principle  that  "  he  who  drives  fat  oxen 
must  himself  be  fat,"  many  seem  to  reason  that  the  men  who 
sail  our  ships  must  of  necessity  best  know  how  to  build  them. 
The  theory  has  led  to  results  as  unsatisfactory  as  those  which 
would  follow  the  adoption  of  a  corresponding  delusion  that 
architectural  ability  is  developed  by  residence  in  fine  houses. 
The  best  work  on  seamanship  is  credited  to  a  dockyard  clerk, 
who  had  never  been  to  sea,  and  it  may  require  other  qualities 
than  those  found  in  our  Paul  Joneses  and  Farraguts  success- 
fully to  develop  that  most  complex  of  all  mechanisms,  the  mod- 
ern battle-ship. 

The  action  at  Hampton  Roads  brought  most  prominently 
into  view  eugineerins:  skill  as  one  of  the  chief  factors  in  mod- 
ern  naval  success.  Hence,  when  mechanical  genius  in  some 
measure  had  its  own  way,  the  practical  head  of  our  Navy  De- 
partment during  the  war.  Captain  Fox,  was  able  to  declare  that 
the  machine  thus  created  was  perfect  for  the  work  she  was  in- 
tended for,  and  was  the  only  progressive  creation  of  the  war. 
On  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  that  eminent  authority,  Mr. 
Scott  Russell,  speaking  of  the  remarkable  success  of  the  original 
Mo7iito?',  as  "  a  type  of  an  entirely  new  class  of  war-ships,"  ob- 
serves how  differently  the  system  was  developed  in  America 
and  in  England.  "  In  the  one  case  the  sudden  abandonment  of 
all  the  conventionalities  of  a  ship,  in  the  other  the  studious  re- 
tention of  old  forms  and  ways,  admitting  the  innovation  with 


EIVALS   AND   IMITATORS. 


119 


the  greatest  possible  amount  of  reluctance  and  seeming  aver- 
sion, and  hating  a  novelty  whatever  be  its  merits." 

Instead  of  following  out  the  lines  laid  down  for  them  by 
the  genius  of  the  man  who  has  created  modern  naval  war,  the 
Americans  have,  since  released  from  the  control  of  war  neces- 
sities, occupied  themselves  in  the  supine  contemplation  of  for- 
eign creations,  forgetting  how  many  of  the  great  progressive 
changes,  even  in  the  art  of  war,  have  had  their  origin,  if  not 
their  development,  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic. 


Sectional  View  of  a  Monitor  through  Turret  and  Pilot-house, 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

SERVICES   TO   SWEDEN   AND  SPAIN. 

The  Defence  of  Sweden. — Letter  to  Secretary  Seward. — The  Swede's 
Lack  of  Ability  as  a  Soldier. — His  High  Qualities. — Monitors  and 
Gunboats  for  Sweden. — Ericsson  Opposed  to  Naval  Attack  on 
Charleston,  S.  C. — A  Cavalry  Gun. — Insurrection  on  Cuba. — Erics- 
son's Aid  Invoked. — Builds  Thirty  Gunboats  for  Spain. — Interna- 
tional Difficulties. 

TO  the  defence  of  Sweden  Ericsson  contributed  liberally  in 
money,  inventive  talent,  large  experience,  and  spund 
judgment.  "  But  for  your  patriotic  generosity,"  wrote  Cap- 
tain Adlersparre,  of  the  Swedish  Navy,  "our  first  monitor 
would  have  had  two  9-inch  guns."  Thanks  to  the  generosity 
of  John  Ericsson  the  monitor  that  bore  his  name  carried  the 
most  effective  ordnance  then  afloat,  the  15-inch  Rodman  gun. 
"If  there  is  in  heaven  a  special  dwelling  for  patriots,"  wrote 
the  warm-hearted  sailor,  "your  place  will  certainly  be  in  the 
state  apartments." 

Adlersparre  described  his  solemn  feelings  when,  during 
a  voyage  on  the  first  Swedish  monitor,  he  examined  "  this 
most  perfect  production  of  your  creative  genius  which  has  had 
such  a  decisive  influence  in  settling  one  of  the  greatest  social 
questions,  the  abolition  of  slavery."  He  spoke  of  the  anxiety 
he  felt  when  he  realized  that  the  poverty  of  Sweden  prevented 
the  building  of  a  sufficient  number  of  these  vessels,  while  their 
"enemies  and  neighbors,  the  Russians  and  Prussians,"  could 
have  so  many  more.  "Situated  as  we  are,"  he  said,  "between 
these  two  engulfing  powers,  both  alike  dangerous  and  endea- 
voring to  extend  their  dominion,  this  is  a  very  critical  situa- 
tion." 

These  apprehensions  were  shared  by  Ericsson.  "More," 
he  said,  "is  known  here,  in  certain  quarters,  than  you  are 


SERVICES  TO   SWEDEN   AND   SPAIN.  121 

aware  of,  respecting  the  dangers  to  Sweden  which  loom  up  in 
the  immediate  future.  The  gigantic  Northeastern  Empire,  it 
is  said — now  that  Prussia  virtually  commands  the  outlet  of  the 
Baltic — cannot  permit  a  weak  neighbor  to  present  a  permanent 
barrier  to  a  direct  communication  with  the  ocean,  A  protract- 
ed war  between  France  and  Germany,  it  is  added,  will  infalli- 
bly be  taken  advantage  of,  and  Sweden  be  made  a  province  of 
the  great  empire.  England  is  no  longer  counted,  and,  to  neu- 
tralize her  waning  power,  desperate  efforts  are  being  made  to 
secure  America.  Witness  the  overstrained  attentions  paid  to  a 
score  of  subordinates  on  a  recent  occasion." 

Ericsson  had  no  very  high  opinion  of  the  Swede's  ability  as 
a  soldier.  "The  young  Swedes,"  he  said,  "require  a  longer 
training  to  become  good  soldiers  than  any  people  I  know. 
The  stuff  is  there,  but  it  requires  an  inconveniently  long  time 
to  bring  it  out.  It  was  my  business  for  years  to  train 
'rekryter,'  hence  I  know  what  I  am  talking  about.  An  Am- 
erican lad  will  become  a  better  soldier  in  a  month  than 
' bondpoiken'  in  two  years.  The  subject  has  engaged  my  mind 
intimately  for  nearly  ten  years,  the  result  of  all  speculations 
and  considerations  being  a  settled  conviction  that  Sweden,  with 
her  small  population,  cannot  be  defended  against  Russia  or 
Germany,  excepting  by  mechanical  means.  This  idea  would 
be  laughed  to  scorn  if  put  forth,  hence  I  will  remain  silent, 
hoping  that  my  dear  native  land  will  not  be  attacked  until 
the  necessity  of  invoking  mechanical  aid  is  appreciated  by 
my  countrymen.  I  know  full  well  that,  should  a  determined 
attack  be  made  before  the  truth  I  have  enunciated  shall  be 
acknowledged  and  acted  upon,  Sweden  will  be  blotted  out  from 
the  map  of  Europe,  as  an  independent  nation." 

Again  he  wrote,  saying:  "The  Swedish  nation  has  still 
many  great  achievements  before  it.  I  admire  my  countrymen 
and  think  most  highly  of  the  'uncivilized  Swede,'  who  has 
gained  from  every  comparison  I  have  made  during  my  stay 
among  other  nations.  I  believe  I  understand  the  subject  thor- 
oughly, for  as  a  niveleur  on  the  Gota  Canal  I  came  in  per- 
sonal contact  with  a  great  number  of  the  working  class,  and 
when  a  surveyor  in  the  forests  of  Jemtland,  my  associations 
during  several  summers  were  exclusively  with  the  sons  of  the 


122  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

peasantry  who  were  inj  assistants.  It  is  with  true  satisfaction 
I  now  call  to  memory  the  time  when  I  associated  and  exchanged 
thoughts  with  tlie  energetic  and  hardy  youth  of  the  Xorrland 
forests.  Without  disparaging  other  nations,  I  must  say  that 
the  perseverance,  sense  of  right,  and  clear  heads  of  these  youths 
place  them  far  beyond  the  young  men  of  the  working  class  in 
the  other  countries  I  know.  I  estimate  the  Swedish  vigor  and 
innate  good  sense  as  beyond  that  of  other  nations." 

As  soon  as  he  was  released  from  his  work  upon  the  moni- 
tors for  the  American  Xavy,  Ericsson  turned  his  chief  at- 
tention to  the  problem  of  defending  his  native  land.  ''  I  love 
Sweden,"  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State,  "  and 
would  willingly  sacrifice  my  life  for  her  honor."  "  So  exclu- 
sively have  I  devoted  myself  to  the  Swedish  national  defence," 
he  said  in  August,  1S67,  "  that  I  have  not  been  out  of  Xew 
York  for  a  single  hour  this  summer."  This  shows  how  his 
mind  was  absorbed  with  patriotic  work,  though  the  experi- 
ence, so  far  as  confinement  to  his  office  was  concerned,  was  no 
unusual  one,  for  he  never  went  from  Xew  York  further  than 
the  opposite  bank  of  the  Hudson.  He  invented  a  special  form 
of  monitor  for  the  defence  of  the  Swedish  coasts.  This  was  a 
little  vessel  of  140  tons,  so  designed  as  to  caiTy  out  the  idea  of 
fighting  bows  on,  the  turrets  being  stationary  and  oval  in  shape, 
thus  presenting  the  least  possible  surface  to  the  impact  of  shot. 
The  pilot-houses  were  put  aft,  out  of  the  line  of  fire.  The  ma- 
chiner}'  for  the  first  one  was  presented  by  Ericsson  to  his  native 
land  as  a  pattern  to  be  strictly  followed.  As  Sweden  was  de- 
pendent upon  imported  coal,  and  her  supplies  would  be  cut  off 
in  the  event  of  a  blockade,  it  was  so  arranged  that  it  could  be 
detached  from  the  propeller  when  required,  and  hand-power 
applied  to  turn  the  screw.  A  crew  of  twenty-four  men  could 
produce  Tf  horse-power  at  the  maximum,  and  could  maintain 
5^  horse-power  for  several  hours.  The  Swedish  sailors  ob- 
jected to  this  hand-work  because  of  its  resemblance  to  that 
of  galley  slaves,  but  as  the  emergency  for  which  these  vessels 
were  intended  happily  never  came,  neither  their  patriotism  nor 
their  muscle  was  put  to  the  test. 

This  idea  of  boats  carrying  a  single  gun,  placed  parallel  with 
the  keel  and  trained  by  the  vessel,  is  an  old  one  in  Sweden,  hav- 


SERVICES  TO  SWEDEN  AND  SPAIN.  123 

ing  been  adopted  during  the  last  century.  Indeed,  Swedish 
coast  defence  has,  ever  since  naval  ordnance  was  introduced, 
depended  mainly  upon  gunboats  propelled  by  oars.  Ericsson 
substituted  the  propeller  for  the  oars,  placed  the  crew  below 
the  water-line,  protected  the  gun  against  the  enemy's  fire,  ap- 
plied a  small  auxiliary  steam-engine,  and  introduced  a  wheel 
at  the  bow  for  turning  the  vessel  on  her  centre.  His  little 
craft  were  slow,  but  it  was  not  intended  that  they  should  ever 
come  within  reach  of  an  enemy.  Creeping  along  the  coast 
from  inlet  to  inlet,  and  always  in  shallow  water,  they  could 
not  be  run  down,  and  could  make  their  single  heavy  gun 
most  effective  in  convincing  an  enemy  that  the  Swedish  coast 
was  not  a  comfortable  place  for  hostile  cruising.  They  were 
described  by  their  designer  "as  a  combination  of  steam-power 
and  hand-power,"  each  independent  of  the  other.  When  the 
coal  gave  out  the  "blue  jackets"  were  to  lay  hold;  thus  the 
Swedes  would  be  able  to  lurk  for  any  length  of  time  along  the 
coast,  watching  their  opportunity  to  have  a  pop  at  the  hated 
Muscovite. 

Had  the  Confederates  been  armed  with  such  vessels  at  the 
outbreak  of  the  American  war,  they  would  have  found  them  of 
far  greater  value  than  their  heavy  iron-clads.  The  money 
spent  on  the  larger  vessels  was  wasted,  as  they  were  built  only 
to  be  destroyed  one  after  another.  With  these  little  monitors 
they  could  have  effectually  defended  the  Mississippi  and  its 
tributaries ;  perhaps  prevented  Farragut  from  capturing  New 
Orleans,  and  sunk  or  burned  the  vessels  of  his  fleet  one  after 
another ;  the  story  of  the  capture  of  Port  Royal  would  not 
have  been  told  ;  Grant's  operations  at  Yicksburg  would  have 
been  made  impossible,  and  the  blockade  could  not  have  been  so 
efficiently  maintained.  The  fate  of  the  Nashville  shows  how 
effectively  15-incli  shell  could  be  used. 

For  Sweden,  Ericsson  subsequently  recommended  gunboats 
in  place  of  more  monitors.  "  The  subject  of  naval  defence," 
he  said,  "has  engaged  my  attention  for  thirty  years,  during 
which  time  I  have  had  unequalled  opportunities  of  arriving  at 
a  correct  conclusion  in  the  matter.  That  conclusion  is  that  a 
weak  nation  can  defend  lierself  only  by  gunboats."  Four 
dozen  15-inch  gunboats    could,  he  thought,  accomplish   more 


124  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

than  four  monitors,  and  they  were  less  expensive.  He  gave  the 
same  advice  to  the  Greek  Charg^  d'Affaires  at  Washington  when 
he  appHed  for  advice  as  to  the  proper  armament  for  Greece. 

For  the  machinery  of  the  first  of  the  Swedish  gunboats 
Ericsson  expended  some  $6,000,  and  in  a  letter  dated  Septem- 
ber 3,  1867,  he  mentions  the  fact  that  he  had,  up  to  that  time, 
expended  over  100,000  crowns  on  the  defence  of  Sweden. 
"Nobody  now  living  has  given  such  proof  of  patriotism,"  wrote 
Adlersparre,  "and  no  one  of  our  ancestors  has  done  more. 
You  may  be  sure  that  the  Swedish  nation  loves  you  and  men- 
tions your  name  with  pride  and  enthusiasm;  excepting  only  a 
few  case-hardened  generals  and  counts  in  the  aristocratic  first 
chamber,  who  cannot  bear  that  anybody  should  be  so  esteemed 
as  to  eclipse  their  stupid  self-conceit." 

This  was  in  answer  to  complaints  from  Ericsson  that  his 
disinterested  purpose  was  not  understood  in  Sweden,  and  was  in 
danger  of  miscarrying  because  of  the  distrust  and  jealousy  of 
the  Swedish  authorities.  "With  an  adequate  number  of  gun- 
boats carrying  15-inch  guns,  we  can,"  he  said,  "  destroy  an  en- 
emy's vessels,  and  infallibly  defend  our  shores.  Without  the 
same  an  invasion  could  not  be  prevented,  notwithstanding  the 
expenditure  of  millions  of  riks  dollars  for  cunning  devices  and 
traps;  and  notwithstanding  millions  of  pounds  of  powder  be- 
ing hidden  under  water — to  be  removed  or  avoided  by  a  skilful 
enemy." 

In  another  letter,  dated  March  6,  1868,  he  warned  Adler- 
sparre against  wasting  money  on  fixed  torpedo  defences  or  tor- 
pedoes sunk  in  the  harbor  to  be  fired  by  contact  or  from  the 
shore.  Concerning  them  he  made  this  interesting  statement: 
"The  assertion  that  torpedoes  prevented  the  Union  forces  dur- 
ing the  late  war  from  capturing  any  desirable  place,  is  simply 
untrue.  Mechanical,  positive  obstruction  and  rope  defences,  sus- 
pended under  water  for  entangling  our  propellers,  we  deemed 
formidable  barriers.  As  to  Charleston,  our  commanding  gen- 
eral never  desired  its  capture,  as  he  had  no  means  to  hold  it  if 
taken — 50,000  men  would  not  have  sufficed  for  that  purpose. 
The  whole  scheme  of  capturing  Charleston  originated  with 
Fox,  but  it  was  laughed  at  by  most  military  men.  I  did  all  I 
could  (probably  all  that  was  needed)  to  prevent  the  silly  scheme 


SERVICES  TO   SWEDEN  AND   SPAIN.  125 

from  being  carried  out.  Had  General  Grant  said  to  the  fleet, 
*Go  in  and  bombard  the  city,  /  want  it  and  can  hold  it,'  the 
thing  would  have  been  done.  I  had,  in  expectation  that  such 
orders  would  come,  contrived  iron  baskets,  several  of  which 
were  completed,  for  protecting  the  propellers  from  the  sunken 
rope-snares.  As  to  torpedoes,  Admiral  Dahlgren  never  for  a 
moment  hesitated  to  pay  the  city  a  visit  on  account  of  their 
existence.  It  was  the  piles  and  the  rope  entanglements  which 
alone  restrained  him. 

"Respecting  Sweden,  let  me  ask  if  the  sinking  of  10,000 
torpedoes  would  prevent  Russia  from  landing  at  some  desirable 
point?  The  removing  and  destroying  torpedoes  is  a  mechani- 
cal problem  of  easy  solution.  Two  or  three  iron-clads  fitted 
for  this  purpose  would  make  short  work  with  your  delicate  tor- 
pedo gear  (at  the  place  selected  for  attack  and  landing)  in  a  sin- 
gle day.  Pardon  me  if  I  say  that  I  lack  patience  to  argue  the 
point.  Suppose  you  incur  the  expense  of  placing  10,000  tor- 
pedoes. The  enemy  will  attain  his  end  by  removing  less  than 
five  hundred.  You  cannot  'prevent  this,  you  cannot  protect 
your  tender  gear  unless  you  possess  fortifications  so  extensive 
that  England's  wealth  would  not  suffice  to  erect  the  same. 
While  thus  you  are  watching  and  guarding  your  useless  9,500 
torpedoes,  the  enemy  will  land  and  throw  his  whole  concentra- 
ted force  on  the  spot  selected.  Your  army  then  must  meet 
him,  and  if  you  have  not  a  gunboat  fleet,  powerful  enough  to 
destroy  his  fleet  of  transports,  he  will  pour  in  his  overwhelming 
force  and  capture  the  country.  Is  not  this  a  plain  proposition  ? 
Abstain,  then,  from  wasting  your  means  on  anything  else  until 
you  have  a  fleet  of  at  least  fifty  gunboats  carrying  15-inch 
guns.  This  fleet  equipped  and  ready  to  meet  the  enemy,  then 
by  all  means  resort  to  all  possible  auxiliary  defences  that  your 
resources  admit  of,  but  not  until  the  army  has  been  provided 
with  proper  firearms." 

Ericsson  was  so  intensely  absorbed  in  his  study  of  the 
means  best  adapted  for  the  defence  of  Sweden's  threatened 
nationality,  that  he  could  not  comprehend  the  indifference  with 
which  his  opinions  were  received  in  some  quarters.  "I  con- 
sider it  an  insult,"  he  wrote,  "that  the  principal  papers  at  the 
capital  do  not  all  of  them  publish  my  report,  for  the  editors 


126  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

are  Dot  blockheads  aud  must  therefore  know  that  they  cannot 
present  to  their  readers  any  tiling  more  interesting  just  at  pres- 
ent, when  the  defence  of  the  country  upon  the  sea  attracts  the 
attention  of  the  entire  nation.  I  expected  encouragement  from 
my  fatherland,  as  it  is  for  its  welfare  I  am  now  working  and 
spending  large  sums.  I  cannot  deny  that  the  neglectful  silence 
of  the  Swedish  press  at  this  time  has  affected  and,  in  a  meas- 
ure, checked  the  unbounded  enthusiasm  with  which  I  have  so 
long  labored  for  the  naval  defence  of  my  fatherland,  convinced 
that  if  it  is  not  strong  our  fight  against  Kussia  and  Germany 
will  be  vain.'' 

Speaking  of  his  intention  to  reply  to  "  lying  allegations  " 
concerning  his  work  appearing  in  a  Swedish  paper,  Ericsson 
said  :  "  Xot  that  I  care  on  personal  grounds,  but  because  these 
allegations  will,  if  uncontradicted,  to  some  extent,  impair  my 
standing  in  Sweden,  aud  thereby  affect  my  ability  to  be  useful 
to  my  countrymen."  His  reply  assumed  the  shape  of  an  ad- 
dress "  To  my  Countrymen."'  It  was  a  vigorous  defence  of 
his  gunboat  scheme  against  the  assaults  of  an  anonymous  news- 
paper correspondent. 

This  letter  was  a  contribution  to  an  active  controversy  in 
Sweden,  the  old  time  professional  prejudices  being  arrayed 
against  Ericsson  there  as  well  as  elsewhere.  "  May  this  con- 
troversy cease,"  exclaimed  Ericsson,  in  the  peroration  to  his  ad- 
dress, "but  not  until  with  'our  weapons'  for  cases  of  necessit}', 
our  energy,  and  our  high  intelligence  we  have  shown  the  world 
that  we  have  power  not  only  to  resist  but  to  defeat  the  enemy 
who  threatens  our  independence."  The  appearance  of  this  let- 
ter did  not  altogether  please  Ericsson's  cooler-headed  brother. 
He  argued,  very  sensibly,  that  it  could  lead  to  no  result,  except 
to  flatter  the  critics,  and  the  paper  inviting  their  contributions, 
by  the  attention  shown  them,  and  thus  provoke  them  to  new 
efforts  of  hostility.  "  You  gain  nothing,"  wrote  Kils,  "  by  thus 
descending  to  the  level  of  these  champions  of  the  old  style 
man-of-war.  They  cannot  be  convinced,  and  to  silence  them 
is  impossible."  But  when  was  an  enthusiastic  inventor  ever 
silenced  by  such  reasoning  ?  And,  no  doubt,  controversy  had 
its  charm  for  one  who  wrote  with  such  facility,  and  was  able  to 
express  his  thoughts  with  such  clearness  and  force. 


SERVICES   TO   SWEDEN   AND   SPAIN.  127 

Ericsson  designed  a  liglit  steel  gun  to  be  carried  between 
two  cavalry  horses,  and  used  by  a  force  acting  independently. 
He  intended  such  guns  primarily  for  the  defence  of  Sweden, 
and  intended  to  send  some  of  them  at  his  own  expense ;  they 
would,  he  wrote  November  6,  1868,  "  long  ere  this  have 
been  on  Swedish  soil  if  his  Majesty  had  not  wholly  mistaken 
their  object.  As  an  auxiliary  to  infantry,  this  weapon  is  worth- 
less ;  but  arm  a  regiment  or  two  with  it  to  act  independently, 
and  you  could  crush  any  invading  force  whatever,  cavalry,  in- 
fantry, or  artillery."  One  of  these  guns  was  sent  to  West 
Point  for  experiment.  It  was  especially  designed  for  such  ser- 
vice as  that  performed  by  cavalry  troops  during  the  Civil 
Wai-,  when  they  so  successfully  combined  the  functions  of  cav- 
alry and  infantry,  and  enlarged  the  role  of  the  horseman  in  war. 

In  September,  1868,  the  authority  of  Queen  Isabella  II.  was 
overthrown,  and  Spain  was  for  a  series  of  years  distracted  with 
civil  strife.  The  discontented  Cubans  seized  this  opportunity 
to  rebel,  and  the  Provincial  Government,  representing  Spanish 
authority,  occupied  as  it  was  with  contentions  at  home,  found 
great  diflBculty  in  dealing  with  this  new  element  of  disorder. 
In  January,  1869,  1,500  troops  were  sent  from  Spain  to  rein- 
force the  Cuban  garrison.  A  thousand  more  followed  in  Feb- 
ruary, and  2,200  in  March,  and  before  the  war  was  over  the 
number  approached  100,000.  The  Spaniards,  aided  by  the  local 
volunteers,  were  found  unequal  to  the  task  of  controlling  the 
island.  Sympathy  with  the  insurgents  was  universal  through- 
out South  America,  and  there  was  a  strong  public  opinion  in 
the  United  States  favoring  the  overthrow  of  Spanish  authority 
in  the  Antilles.  This  found  expression  in  expeditions  sent  out 
from  the  United  States,  carrying  men  and  supplies  to  Cuba. 
A  decree  was  issued  threatening  with  penalties  of  piracy  ves- 
sels conveying  aid  to  the  insurgents  and  carrying  an  unrecog- 
nized flag.  But  it  was  hrutum  fuhnen^  as  Spain  possessed  no 
adequate  means  of  protecting  herself  at  sea. 

In  this  extremity  a  sum  of  money  was  placed  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  Cuban  authorities  to  procure  additional  men-of- 
war.  Captain  Raphael  de  Aragon,  of  the  Spanish  Navy,  was 
sent  by  Admiral  Malcampo,  Naval  Commander  in  Cuba,  to  the 
United  States  early  in  1869,  to  secure  the  vessels  needed.     Va- 


128  LIFE    OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

rious  suggestions  were  made  to  him.  One  ship-builder  proposed 
to  expend  the  entire  amount  at  his  disposal  upon  a  single  craft; 
another  proposed  two,  but  neither  presented  a  satisfactory  plan. 
Messrs.  Delamater  &  Co.  were  called  upon.  They  consulted 
with  Ericsson.  As  he  had  just  dealt  with  a  similar  problem 
in  studying  the  defence  of  Sweden,  he  was  able  at  once  to  sug- 
gest a  definite  and  intelligent  scheme.  He  agreed  to  furnish 
the  working  plans  for  thirty  gunboats  on  two  conditions:  first, 
that  these  plans  were  not  to  be  called  for  until  the  work  was 
ready  to  be  put  in  hand;  and  next,  that  the  contract  should  be 
given  to  his  friend  Delamater.  When  the  Spanish  authorities 
demurred  to  this  first  condition,  it  was  explained  that  Captain 
Ericsson  had  never  presented  to  the  American  Government  any 
detailed  plans  of  the  numerous  vessels  he  had  constructed,  the 
Navy  Department  having  in  every  instance  trusted  to  his  great 
experience  and  skill  in  constructing  war  vessels.  General  di- 
mensions of  hull  and  machinery,  with  a  brief  specification  set- 
ting forth  other  principal  features  of  the  structures,  formed  the 
basis  of  contracts  with  the  United  States. 

With  so  distinguished  a  precedent  to  guide  them,  the  Span- 
iards wisely  decided  to  leave  the  matter  to  the  individual  judg- 
ment of  the  man  who  of  all  men  best  understood  it.  They 
contented  themselves  with  stating  the  object  they  had  in  view. 
Ericsson's  plan  w-as  to  form  around  Cuba  a  cordon  of  light  ves- 
sels, each  armed  with  a  100-pound  gun,  with  engines  of  160 
horse-power,  giving  ten  knots  maximum  speed  in  smooth  water, 
carrying  coal  for  six  days'  moderate  steaming,  and  having  a 
storage  capacity  for  w'ater  and  provisions  for  thirty  days.  It 
was  expected  to  secure  this  in  a  vessel  of  22  feet  beam  100 
feet  in  length,  and  with  8  feet  depth  of  hold.  It  was  found 
necessary  to  increase  the  length  to  107  feet  on  the  water-line 
and  22\  feet  beam.  To  keep  within  the  requirement  of  a 
draught  not  exceeding  59  inches  (1^  metre)  the  keel  was  omit- 
ted. Two  propellers  were  provided,  of  unusual  size  in  propor- 
tion to  the  hull,  and  the  vessel  was  schooner-rigged  with  a 
moderate  amount  of  sail-power.  Ericsson's  favorite  idea  of 
fighting  bows  on  was  illustrated  here,  and  the  100-pound  im- 
proved Parrott  gun  was  trained  to  fire  over  the  bow  and  in  a 
line  with  the  keel.     The  bulwarks  forward  were  set  on  hinges 


SERVICES   TO   SWEDEN   AND   SPAIN.  129 

SO  that  they  could  be  lowered,  and  the  gun  fired  en  harbette 
with  a  range  of  120  degrees  on  each  side  of  the  bow,  or  240 
degrees  in  all. 

Captain  Ericsson's  purpose  was  to  show  how  a  gunboat  for 
coast  defence  might  be  reduced  in  size  by  good  planning,  and 
the  steam  machinery  gives  another  illustration  of  his  ingenuity 
in  devising  expedients  to  meet  novel  conditions.  His  surface 
condensers  were  made  to  do  double  duty,  not  only  returning 
the  steam  to  the  boiler  in  the  shape  of  fresh  water,  but  serving 
also  as  a  support  for  the  engines,  thus  dispensing  entirely 
with  the  usual  frame-work.  This  made  it  possible  to  meet 
the  objection  that  twin  screws,  with  their  duplication  of  work- 
ing parts,  produced  too  much  complication  and  weight  for 
small  vessels.  These  double  screws  were  as  compact  as  ordi- 
nary single-screw  engines  of  equal  power.  The  bearings  were 
made  self-adjusting  by  peculiarities  of  construction.  The 
reversing  gear  was  so  arranged  as  to  give  the  officer  on  the 
deck  complete  control  of  his  vessel,  enabling  him  to  start, 
back,  or  stop  either  propeller  without  the  assistance  of  the  en- 
gineer. 

The  price  for  each  vessel  was  $42,500,  and  this  whole  fleet 
of  gunboats  cost  but  little  more  than  a  million  and  a  quar- 
ter of  dollars,  or  no  more  than  a  single  cruiser  of  moderate  size. 
The  contract  was  signed  by  the  Delamater  Iron  Works,  N^ew 
York,  May  3,  1869  ;  the  first  keel  was  laid  May  19th,  and  the 
first  vessel  launched  June  23d,  thirty-four  working  days  after 
laying  the  keel.  In  three  months  and  sixteen  days  from  this 
time  the  last  vessel  of  the  thirty  was  launched,  and  fifteen  of 
the  fleet  had  engines  and  boilers  on  board. 

When  the  fleet  was  ready  for  sea,  and  the  saucj'-looking  craft 
lay  ten  abreast  off  the  Delamater  Works  in  the  Hudson  River, 
a  United  States  marshal  appeared  with  orders  to  seize  them 
for  violating  the  neutrality  laws.  It  was  alleged  that  they 
were  fitting  out  for  an  assault  upon  Peru,  Spain  having  recently 
been  at  war  with  that  country,  and  having  still  an  unsettled 
account  with  her.  Affidavits  presented  by  the  designer  and 
the  builders  of  the  thirty  gunboats  made  it  clear  that  they  were 
intended  only  for  home  defence,  and  could  not  be  used  for  ag- 
gression, as  unless  they  could  touch  land  at  short  intervals  to 
Vol.  II.— 9 


130  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

secure  supplies,  their  offensive  as  well  as  their  defensive  power 
would  cease. 

Before  this  difficulty  was  settled,  another  arose.  The  Act  of 
March  3,  1S17,  "more  effectually  to  preserve  the  neutral  re- 
lations of  the  United  States,''  forbade  the  "  fitting  out  or  arm- 
ing of  any  ship  or  vessel,  with  intent  that  such  ship  or  vessel 
shall  be  employed  in  the  service  of  any  foreign  prince  or  state, 
or  of  any  colony,  district,  or  people,  to  cruise  or  commit  hostil- 
ities against  the  subjects,  citizens,  or  property  of  any  foreign 
prince  or  state,  or  of  any  colony,  district,  or  people  with  whom 
the  United  States  are  at  peace,"  etc.  The  counsel  for  the 
Cuban  Junta  in  Xew  York,  Mr.  Grosvenor  P.  Lowrey,  pre- 
sented to  the  United  States  District  Attorney  an  argument  to 
show  that  the  Cuban  insurgents  were  such  a  "  colony,  district, 
or  people,"  and  asked  that  the  gunboats  be  libelled.  He  also 
proceeded  to  Washington,  accompanied  by  Mr.  AVm.  M.  Evarts 
as  associate  counsel,  and  there  renewed  his  argument  before  the 
Attorney-General  and  before  President  Grant,  whose  sympa- 
thies, and  still  more  those  of  the  Secretary  of  "War,  General 
Rawlins,  were  with  the  Cubans.  A  debate  on  this  question 
also  arose  in  Congress,  Senator  Matthew  11.  Carpenter,  of  Wis- 
consin, presenting  the  argument  of  the  Cubans,  and  Senator 
Charles  Sumner,  of  Massachusetts,  Chairman  of  the  Committee 
on  Foreign  Affairs,  contending  that  Cuba  had  no  legal  exis- 
tence, her  belligerency  not  being  an  accomplished  fact  and  the 
contest  merely  one  with  guerilla  bands. 

It  was  finally  decided  that  Spain  was  not  making  war  on  an 
independent  people,  but  simply  maintaining  authority  within 
her  own  borders.  This  decision  was  a  great  relief  to  Eiicsson 
as  well  as  to  Delamater,  as  the  law  not  only  provided  for  the 
seizure  of  the  vessels,  but  for  the  punishment  by  fine  and 
imprisonment  of  all  guilty  of  the  "high  misdemeanor"  of  par- 
ticipating in  fitting  out  an  illegal  expedition. 

The  first  vessel  on  her  trial  fell  four  one-hundredths  of  a  knot 
short  of  her  contract  speed,  but  Ericsson  showed  that  the  extra 
speed  might  have  been  obtained  by  "improper  expedients" 
customary  in  such  cases,  such  as  carrying  the  smoke-stack  to 
the  usual  height,  instead  of  shortening  it  fifteen  feet,  as  he  had 
done  to  keep  it  out  of  the  way  of  the  sails.     "  I  cannot,"  he 


SERVICES   TO   SWEDEN   AND   SPAIN".  131 

said  to  Mr.  Delainater,  "  dismiss  the  subject  without  reminding 
you  of  the  strong  objections  I  urged  from  the  beginning,  against 
high  speed,  as  not  compatible  with  that  class  of  vessels  best 
suited  for  coast  defence,  viz.,  a  small,  light-draught,  handy,  and 
economical  gunboat  whicli  can,  on  extraordinary  occasions,  for 
a  short  time,  run  at  the  rate  of  eleven  English  miles  an  hour. 
Let  me  add,  anything  above  that  speed  calls  for  sacrifices  fatal 
to  practical  utility ;  and  after  all,  if  provided  with  dispropor- 
tionate engine-power,  such  a  craft  cannot  carry  fuel  for  any  dis- 
tance, and  hence  will  spend  its  time  at  the  coaling  stations,  in 
place  of  watching  and  defending  the  coast.  Having  exhausted 
all  mechanical  resources,  and  brought  to  bear  on  the  construction 
of  the  Spanish  gunboats  the  experience  of  a  long  professional 
career,  I  cannot  allow  myself  to  think  that  the  result  of  my 
labors  will  not  be  cheerfully  accepted  by  Admiral  Malcampo 
and  his  Government." 

The  vessels  were  accepted,  and  they  proved  so  satisfactory 
to  the  Spanish  Government  that  they  found  no  reason  to  re- 
gret the  unusual  confidence  leading  them  to  entrust  the  build- 
ing of  a  fleet  to  an  uncommissioned  civilian,  without  under- 
taking in  any  way  to  direct  his  work.  Captain-General  de 
Kodas  was  able  to  issue  another  proclamation  to  the  insurgent 
Cubans  on  March  24,  1870,  reminding  them  that  in  view  of 
the  thirty  war  vessels  appearing  like  magic  on  their  coasts,  they 
could  no  longer  depend  upon  support  from  abroad.  "  From 
day  to  day,"  he  said,  "  there  will  be  no  place  or  hour  secure 
for  you ;  the  gunboats  are  on  the  coast  to  which  you  turn 
your  gaze," 

Thus  for  a  second  time  did  rebellion  on  the  western  shores 
of  the  Atlantic  receive  a  staggering  blow  from  the  hand  of 
John  Ericsson,  though  many  Americans  may  regret  that  he 
had  not  stayed  his  hand  in  this  instance.  There  can  be  little 
doubt  that  if  he  had  withheld  assistance  from  the  Spanish  au- 
thorities, the  Cubans  would  have  achieved  their  independence. 

Receiving  at  this  time  a  letter  from  John  Laird,  M.P.,  the 
eminent  ship-builder  of  Birkenhead,  England,  concerning  the 
performance  of  the  unfortunate  Captain  under  sail,  Ericsson 
in  reply  expressed  his  surprise  at  the  result  reported.  Speak- 
ing of  his  experience  with  twin  screws,  he  said  to  Mr.  Laird  : 


132  LIFE  OF  JOUX   ERICSSON. 

"  I  recently  p'ianned  a  fleet  of  thii'ty  twin-screw  guaboate 
for  Spain,  in  wbicli  case,  apart  from  adopting  the  most  fav- 
orable lines  in  the  run,  I  introduced  every  possible  refine- 
ment, such  as  extremely  thin  blades  (bronze),  a  perfectly  true 
screw,  spherical  exterior  to  the  shaft,  bearings  to  keep  the 
same  fair  with  the  shafts,  self-adjusting  thrust-bearings,  etc.; 
yet  these  vessels  do  not  work  under  canvas  as  they  ought. 
Fortunately,  the  Spaniards  think  otherwise,  and  are  so  well 
pleased  that  they  have  sent  me  a  commanders  cross  of  the 
Order  of  Isabel  la  Catolica." 

Admiral  Jose  Maleampo,  in  the  letter  dated  Ilavana,  April 
7,  ISTO,  accompanying  the  decoration,  said :  "  I  deem  it  my 
duty  to  say  to  you  most  earnestly  that,  although  I  am  aware  that 
the  decoration  does  not  by  any  means  reward  the  eminent  ser- 
vices rendered  by  you  to  my  country,  nor  your  kind  intentions, 
or  the  skill  displayed  as  regards  the  difficult  problem  of  con- 
structing the  gunboats,  and  the  mounting  for  the  artillery  pro- 
cured in  the  United  States ;  yet  I  have  great  pleasure  in  con- 
gratulating you  personally  on  the  distinction  you  have  received, 
and  in  tendering  yon  at  the  same  time  the  testimony  of  my  sin- 
cere regard." 

In  reply  Ericsson  said :  "  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge 
the  receipt  of  your  letters  of  April  4th  and  7th  ;  the  former 
presented  to  me  by  Captain  Rafael  de  Aragon. 

"  I  beg  to  assure  you  that  I  duly  appreciate  the  very  kind 
manner  in  which  you  have  been  pleased  to  express  your  satis- 
faction with  my  labors  relating  to  the  Spanish  gunboats.  I 
will  preserve  your  flattering  letters  with  greater  care  than  any 
treasure  I  possess. 

"  "With  reference  to  the  distinguished  honor  which,  through 
your  recommendation,  your  Government  has  bestowed  upon 
me,  I  only  fear  that  I  have  not  done  enough  to  merit  such  a 
mark  of  approbation  from  the  great  Spanish  nation.  I  can 
only  hope  that  some  other  opportunity  will  present  itself  which 
will  enable  me  to  furnish  some  substantial  proof  of  my  grati- 
tude for  so  great  an  honor  as  that  of  wearing  the  commander's 
cross  of  the  ancient  and  high  order  of  Isabel  la  Catolica. 

"  I  avail  myself  of  the  pre?ent  opportunity  to  express  to 
you  my  admiration  of  the  distinguished  representative  of  the 


SERVICES  TO   SWEDEN  AND   SPAIN.  133 

Spanish  Navj,  Captain  Rafael  de  Aragon,  to  whose  energy  and 
skill  you  are  mainly  indebted  for  having,  in  the  unprecedentedly 
short  time  of  eight  months,  procured  a  fleet  of  thirty  vessels  of 
war.  I  can  say  with  perfect  sincerity  that,  during  my  forty 
years  of  intimate  acquaintance  with  naval  officers  of  the  lead- 
ing maritime  nations  of  our  time,  I  have  not  met  anyone  who 
so  thoroughly  understands  his  profession  as  my  friend — I  feei 
proud  to  regard  him  so — Captain  Rafael  de  Aragon.  The 
Spanish  Navy  is  to  be  congratulated  for  possessing  such  an  of- 
ficer, while  the  Spanish  nation  is  fortunate  in  having  placed  its 
Cuban  Navy  in  the  hands  of  a  commander  whose  accurate  ap- 
preciation of  the  abilities  of  his  subordinate  officers  enabled 
him  to  select  the  proper  man  for  the  important  trust  of  super- 
intending the  construction  of  the  thirty  gunboats."  * 

In  1S86  Ericsson  presented  to  King  Alfonso,  through  Cap- 
tain del  Arboe,  Chief  of  a  Spanish  Naval  Commission,  finished 
drawings  in  detail  of  the  Desiroyer  system,  and  his  submarine 
artillery.  The  King  gave  orders  to  notify  Ericsson  at  once  by 
telegraph  that  his  system  would  receive  the  royal  support.  A 
diploma  conferring  upon  him  the  Grand  Cross  of  the  Roj-al 
Spanish  Order  of  Naval  Merit  was  also  sent  through  the  Span- 
ish Minister  at  "Washington. 

*  Of  the  thirty  gunboats  built  for  Spain  in  1869,  eleven  were  in  1889  still 
on  the  Spanish  naval  list  of  "  Canounieres  a  Helice  de  4me  classe,"  viz., 
Alemendares^  Cauto^  Contramaestre,  Criollo,  Descuhridoi',  Ericsson,  Fleclia, 
Oncela,  Ouardidn,  Indto,  and  Telegrama.  The  gun-carriages  applied  to 
these  vessels  were  so  satisfactory  that  the  Spaniards  ordered  similar  ones  for 
other  vessels.  One  of  these  was  on  the  Spanish  gunboat  Tornado,  when,  in 
1873,  she  nearly  involved  the  United  States  in  a  war  with  Spain  by  running 
down  and  capturing  the  Virginius,  having  on  board  men  and  material  for 
"  Cuban  patriots." 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

BUILDING  AND  MOUNTING   HEAVY   GUNS. 

Improvements  in  Heavy  Guns. — The  Oregon  and  the  Horsefall  Guns. — 
Advanced  Ideas  on  the  Subject  of  Heavy  Ordnance. — Remonstrance 
against  the  Guns  of  the  Monitor. — Contract  to  Build  a  13-inch  Gun. 
— Its  Trial  by  the  Government. — Ericsson  Prophesies  Failure  of 
England's  Armstrong  Gun. — Gun-carriages. — Victor  Hugo's  Story 
of  the  Corvette  Claymore. — Ericsson's  Compression  Gun-carriage. 

IN  connection  with  his  labors  upon  vessels  of  war,  Ericsson 
devoted  no  little  ingenuity  to  the  improvement  of  heavy 
guns,  his  efforts  in  this  field  being  directed  by  a  most  exhaustive 
study  into  the  strength  of  materials,  the  operation  of  explosive 
forces,  and  the  laws  governing  the  flight  of  projectiles.  After 
his  investigations  began,  steel  took  the  place  of  iron,  great  im- 
provements were  made  in  powders,  and  the  study  of  high  ex- 
plosives, in  their  application  to  war,  was  vigorously  prosecuted. 
Yet  none  of  these  changes  carried  him  beyond  the  principles 
established  for  his  guidance  as  early  as  the  year  1842,  when  he 
bound  the  cracked  Princeton  gun  with  hoops.  In  a  private 
letter  he  says : 

The  first  of  the  Princeton  guns,  the  "  Oregon  "  12-inch  bore,  cracked 
under  a  charge  of  fifty-six  pounds  of  powder,  from  the  simple  reason 
that  it  was  not  jiermitted  to  recoil  during  the  proof,  its  breech  being 
firmly  imbedded  in  the  slope  of  a  sand-hill.  The  crack  extended  nearly 
from  the  trunnion  to  the  chamber,  notwithstanding  which  I  at  once  ap- 
plied hoops  of  a  peculiar  construction,  and  succeeded  in  making  the 
gun  strong  and  reliable.  Experimental  firing  was  carried  on  with  this 
piece  for  some  time  at  Sandy  Hook,  and  ultimately,  at  the  Philadelphia 
Navy  Yard,  it  was  subjected  to  a  test  of  150  rounds  with  battery  charge 
without  giving  way.  These  extraordinars'  facts  attach  an  interest  and 
importance  to  the  "  Oregon  "  greater  probably  than  to  any  piece  of  ord- 
nance ever  made.  Yet  reports  concerning  this  gun  simply  state  that 
the  "  Oregon  cracked,"  leaving  the  impression  that  the  gim  was  ran- 


BUILDING  AND   MOUNTING  HEAVY   GUNS.  135 

dered  useless.  ...  I  would  observe  that  the  gun  which  burst  on 
board  the  Princeton  under  a  charge  of  only  twenty-five  pounds,  had 
been  previously  destroyed  by  a  hollow  shot  too  large  for  the  bore,  and 
forced  home  with  great  effort.  This  hollow  shot,  which  had  stuck  dur- 
ing the  discharge,  came  out  in  small  fragments.  By  this  unfortunate 
occurrence  the  gun  was  fatally  ruptured.* 

In  a  letter  to  the  Kaval  Chief  of  Ordnance  at  Washington, 
November  23,  186-i,  he  further  said  :  "  Guns  made  on  the  plan 
of  the  great  Ilorsefall  gun,  welding  voussoir  (V-shaped)  bars 
upon  a  case  made  of  a  fagot  of  square  bars,  are  very  unreliable. 
It  is  impossible  to  insure  a  sound  weld  through  all  the  radial 
joints  of  a  pile  laid  upon  that  system.  Each  blow  of  the  ham- 
mer, especially  after  the  pile  has  become  reduced  in  tempera- 
ture below  welding-heat,  tends  to  separate  the  bars,  those  un- 
der the  hammer  acting  like  wedges.  The  second  Stockton  gun 
was  made  in  nearly  the  same  manner  as  the  Horsefall  gun.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  it  split  through  the  centre  under  a 
very  moderate  charge,  on  board  the  United  States  steamer 
Princeton.'''' 

The  Ilorsefall  gun  was  a  smooth-bore  wrought-iron  gun  with 
a  calibre  of  13.014  inches,  built  in  1856  by  the  Mersey  Steel 
and  Iron  Company,  England,  and  tested  with  a  maximum 
charge  of  80  pounds  of  powder  and  a  282-pound  shot.  It 
showed  an  initial  velocity  of  1,631  feet  with  a  74.4  pound 
charge. 

When,  in  1887,  the  son  of  Rear-admiral  Dahlgren  asked 
approval  of  a  statement  he  had  prepared,  showing  that  his 
father's  gun  had  revolutionized  the  navies  of  the  world,  Erics- 
son called  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  his  own  gun  had,  in 
1842,  penetrated  four  and  one-half  inches  of  iron  and  passed 
through  a  sand-bank  behind  it  eight  feet  thick.  "  How  far," 
he  said,  "  this  result,  in  connection  with  the  perfect  success  of 
my  new  wrought-iron  carriage  tested  on  board  United  States 

*  In  a  letter  to  the  author  of  this  biography,  dated  September  19,  1890, 
Commodore  William  M.  Folger,  Chief  of  the  Naval  Bureau  of  Ordnance 
says:  "  The  records  of  the  guns  in  this  office  show  that  the  gun  which  re- 
placed the  12-inch  which  burst  on  the  Princeton,  is  now  at  the  New  York 
Navy  Yard  and  that  the  12-inch  gun  called  the  'Oregon,'  is  now  at  the 
Naval  Academy,  having  been  sent  there  in  July,  1867.  They  are  both 
among  the  relics  and  are  preserved  for  their  history.*' 


136  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

ship  Princeton^  1843,  dispensing  as  it  did  with  breeching,  revol- 
utionized naval  artillery,  the  records  in  the  archives  of  the 
maritime  countries  of  Europe  furnish  decisive  information," 

The  first  guns  used  on  the  introduction  of  artillery  were  made 
of  longitudinal  bars  of  wrought  iron,  arranged  in  a  circle  and 
surrounded  by  hoops.  Small  guns  were  used  or  large  guns 
with  moderate  charges.  As  the  demands  upon  ordnance  in- 
creased, cast  iron  was  substituted,  as  the  ease  of  handling  was 
supposed  to  compensate  for  its  inferior  tenacity.  It  is  an  un- 
certain material,  but  the  Dahlgren  11-incli  guns,  and  the  68- 
pounders  used  in  the  Crimea,  have  a  record  of  over  2,000 
rounds,  and  several  of  the  siege  guns — 24-pounders — used  at  St. 
Sebastian  in  1813,  are  stated  to  have  fired  6,000  rounds.*  The 
superiority  of  American  cast  iron  was  so  great  as  to  equalize  in 
a  large  measure,  in  smooth-bore  guns,  the  advantages  claimed 
for  the  \vrought-iron  guns  manufactured  abroad,  until  steel  was 
universally  adopted  for  heavy  guns. 

A  French  officer  named  Thierry,  in  1834  and  1840,  made 
guns  of  cast  iron  hooped  with  wrought  iron,  and  an  English  patent 
for  this  device  was  granted  in  1848  to  one  Frith.  Ericsson,  who 
never  believed  in  cast  iron,  sought  to  accomplish  the  same  pur- 
pose in  a  wrought-iron  gun  by  surrounding  the  core  with  wash- 
ers, or  perforated  disks  of  thin  plate-iron,  set  in  close  contact. 
In  welding  so  large  a  mass  as  the  body  of  a  gun,  the  tendency 
is  to  destroy  its  fibrous  character,  and  the  intermittent  strains 
of  explosive  shot  subject  it  to  alteration  of  texture.  As  the 
fibrous  character  of  the  iron  was  retained  in  the  rings,  their  ten- 
sile strength  was  estimated  to  be  double  that  of  the  body  of  the 
gun,  and  rings  could  be  applied  of  sufficient  width  to  prevent  the 
gun  from  splitting,  if  filled  with  powder  from  end  to  end.  Such 
fibrous  metal  will  bear  a  vibration  from  explosive  charges,  far 
in  excess  of  that  required  to  break  a  bar  of  crystalline  iron  of 
much  greater  apparent  tensile  strength. 

A  proposition  to  furnish  a  gun  built  upon  Ericsson's  plan  was 
made  at  the  time  tlie  original  Monitor  was  built.  "  Dahlgren," 
Ericsson  says,  "  opposed  my  proposition  to  employ  very  heavy 
ordnance,  and  protested  over  and  over  again  during  the  manu- 
facture of  the  15-incli  guns,  that  he  had  '  nothing  to  do  with 
*  HoUey  :  Ordnance  and  Armor,  p.  312. 


BUILDING   AND   MOUNTING  HEAVY   GUNS.  137 

the  project,'  and  that  he  '  simply  carried  out  instructions.' 
Dahlgren  &  Co.  opposed  my  12-inch  gun  of  1841,  as  be- 
ing too  large  for  practical  utility,  but  afterward  assisted  in 
producing  the  10-inch  gun  for  firing  solid  shot ;  and  many  years 
after  he  ventured  on  the  11-inch  shell  gun  which  was  put  into 
the  Monitor  turret  to  throw  solid  shot,  under  strict  orders  not 
to  exceed  fifteen-pound  charges. 

"  I  protested  against  so  light  a  charge  when  I  took  the  con- 
tract to  build  the  Monitor,  and  offered  myself  to  supply  12-inch 
guns  capable  of  bearing  heavy  charges;  but  my  offer  was  not 
accepted,  and  my  remonstrance  against  the  light  11-inch  gun 
was  in  vain.  Practice  soon  proved  that  heavy  guns  were  indis- 
pensable ;  but  the  claims  of  the  person  who  had  first  urged  heavy 
ordnance,  and  who  had  built  already  in  1811  the  12-incli  gun 
for  solid  shot,  were  forgotten;  while  the  constructor  of  the  11- 
inch  shell  gun  and  opponent  of  heavier  ordnance  figured  alone 
as  the  creator  of  anew  system,  after  the  practical  success  of  the 
15-inch  gun." 

In  1851  the  11-inch  gun  was  considered  too  heavy  to  be 
allowed  in  the  Navy,  and  was  not  admitted  into  use  until  just  be- 
fore the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  in  1861.  Then  the  Ordnance 
officers  were  so  afraid  of  it  that  they  would  allow  but  fifteen 
pounds  of  powder  in  a  gun  equal  to  the  strain  of  fifty  pounds. 
Ericsson's  knowledge  of  the  strength  of  material  showed  him 
its  capabilities,  but  he  could  convince  no  one  else.  The  11-inch 
gun  weighed  sixteen  thousand  pounds  ;  the  15-inch  gun  that 
followed  it,  forty-two  thousand  pounds,  Now,  guns  weighing 
one  hundred  and  ten  and  one  hundred  and  eleven  tons,  or  five 
times  as  much  as  the  American  15-inch  gun,  are  in  the  service 
of  foreign  navies.  No  15-inch  gun  burst  in  our  naval  service 
during  the  war,  though  the  charges  recommended  by  Ericsson 
at  the  outset  were  finally  adopted.  A  trial  gun,  tested  with 
charges  varying  from  thirty-five  to  seventy-five  pounds  of  pow- 
der, burst  at  the  eight  hundred  and  sixty-eighth  round,  and  three 
guns  had  their  muzzles  broken  off  by  the  premature  explosion 
of  shells,  one  at  Charleston  and  two  at  Fort  Fisher. 

The  15-inch  cast-iron  gun  was  tested  with  charges  up  to  one 
hundred  pounds  of  powder  without  showing  any  enlargement 
of  the  bore,  and  an  attempt  made  to  burst  it  in  England,  on 


138  LIFE  OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

the  Shoeburynes3  proving-ground,  bj  firing  it  at  the  trying  ele- 
vation of  fortv-five  degrees  with  this  niaxiinuni  charge,  resulted 
in  the  discomtitnre  of  the  British  artillerists,  whose  purpose 
was  to  discredit  American  ordnance. 

On  April  24,  1S63,  the  Xavy  Department  accepted  an  offer 
from  Ericsson  to  build  13-inch  wrought-iron  guns  at  sixty-four 
cents  a  pound,  or  about  $30,000  each.  One  of  these  was  to  be 
furnished  by  him  and  his  associates  for  trial,  and  orders  for 
others  were  to  follow  if  the  trial  gun  stood  the  test.  As  the  first 
gun  cost  them  over  one  dollar  a  pound,  a  loss  of  nearly  $20,000 
was  the  result.  The  gun  was  tested  in  Xovember,  1S64,  with 
charges  I'anging  from  thirty  to  sixty  pounds,  the  elevation 
gradually  rising,  as  the  charge  increased,  from  fifteen  to  twenty- 
seven  degrrees.  At  the  nineteenth  shot  the  trunnion  band  burst 
and  remained  separated  about  two  inches.  A  number  of 
cracks  had  also  opened,  the  largest  being  two  feet  long  and 
wide  enough  to  admit  the  point  of  a  knife  from  one-quarter  to 
one  inch  deep.* 

The  gun  was  too  short,  the  centre-block  was  not  a  good  forg- 
ing, and  the  quality  of  the  material,  although  the  best  in  the 
country,  was  not  favorable  to  welding.  Still,  Ericsson  believed 
that  the  trial  was  an  unfair  one.  As  high  elevations  were  not 
required  for  naval  guns,  he  had  designed  his  for  a  maximum 
elevation  of  nine  degrees.  Describing  the  trial  of  this  13-inch 
gun  in  a  letter  to  his  familiar  friend,  Captain  Adlersparre,  Feb- 
ruary 8,  1S65,  he  said  : 

The  elevation  was  carried  np  to  thirtv-five  degrees,  and  •'  quick  burn- 
ing" cannon  powder,  such  as  Rodman  would  not  venture  to  put  into 
his  20-inch  gun,  was  used.  To  show  mv  confidence  in  the  strength  of 
the  gun  I  directed  the  shot  to  be  wrapped  with  cloth,  stopping  the 
windage  entirely.  The  great  elevation,  however,  was  agreed  to  under 
protest.  I  informed  the  Ordnance  Bureau  that,  as  the  piece  was  made 
exclusively  for  the  moderate  elevations  peculiar  to  the  turret,  the  trun- 
nion band  was  not  strong  enou2:h  to  sustain  it  at  thirty-five  degrees  ele- 
vation for  continued  firing.  The  trial,  however,  was  successfully  con- 
cluded, and  the  unexpected  result  obtained  produced  a  profound  sensa- 
tion among  the  Ordnance  oflScers.  Xo  one  else  knew  anything  about 
the  matter,  as  the  trials  were  all  conducted  in  secret.     It  was  found,  on 

*  Report  of  Guert  Gansevort,  Inspector  of  Ordnance,  to  Cliief  of  Borean  of 
Ordnance,  November  30,  1864. 


BUILDING  AND   MOUNTING   HEAVY    GUNS.  139 

revising  the  measurements,  tliat  the  range  was  nearly  six  miles.  A  solid 
13-shot  being  hurled  such  a  distance,  all  admitted  to  be  an  achievement 
without  a  precedent. 

But  I  need  hardly  say  the  powerful  cast-iron  interest  became  greatly 
excited.  Certain  imperfections  in  the  bore,  common  to  all  wrought 
guns,  were  pointed  out,  and  a  second  test  was  demanded  to  which  I 
readily  acceded,  having  no  fears  excepting  that  the  strain  on  the  trun- 
nion band,  with  such  great  elevations,  might  prove  injurious.  On  the 
nineteenth  round  of  this  second  trial  the  trunnion  band  parted  under 
the  gun,  at  a  point  where  we  had  from  the  beginning  observed  signs  of 
an  imperfect  weld.  Having  removed  the  fractured  band,  we  put  the 
gun  into  the  lathe,  and  to  my  delight  found  that  it  turned  as  time  on  its 
centres  as  if  it  never  had  been  fired.  The  external  form  has  not  changed 
as  much  as  the  thickness  of  a  hair  in  any  direction  !  A  new  trun- 
nion band  is  now  being  applied.  In  the  meantime,  those  who  know 
most  on  the  subject  claim  that  this  is,  beyond  all  comparison,  the  most 
powerful  and  reliable  gun  in  the  world. 

The  injury  to  the  trunnioD  band  was  not  a  serious  matter, 
as  a  new  band  could  be  applied,  and  this  was  done,  Xor  were 
the  cracks  in  the  bore  more  serious  in  Ericsson's  opinion.  He 
showed  how  this  defect  could  be  remedied  bv  insertine:  a  steel 
lining,  but  the  Bureau  insisted  that  this  should  be  done  at  his 
expense.  As  this  would  increase  the  loss  he  had  already  in- 
curred, he  protested  against  "  the  assumption  that  an  experi- 
ment intimately  connected  with  the  eflBciency  of  the  iron-clad 
navy  ought  to  be  made  at  the  expense  of  an  individual."  In  a 
private  letter  to  Captain  Fox,  December  29,  1S65,  he  said  : 

You  have  a  13-inch  gun  now  at  the  Brooklyn  Navy  Yard  that  may  be 
safely  fired  with  one  hundred  pounds ;  but  unfortunately  your  Ordnance 
officers  do  not  understand  the  value  of  what  they  have  got.  It  is  diffi- 
cult for  me  to  restrain  my  feelings  whenever  I  allude  to  this  subject, 
and  I  hardly  venture  to  call  to  mind  the  decision  of  the  Bureau,  that  a 
steel  lining  ought  to  have  been  put  in  at  my  expense.  Had  the  new 
process  of  making  steel  in  large  masses  been  introduced  into  this  coun- 
try, as  we  expected,  a  gun,  similar  to  the  neglected  13-inch  plate  one, 
but  with  a  steel  core,  would  have  been  made  long  ago. 

On  this  subject  I  will  only  further  observe  that,  if  the  Treasury  could 
only  raise  one  million  of  dollars,  that  million  ought  to  be  spent  on  naval 
ordnance  capable  of  burning  from  one  hundred  and  twenty  to  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  pound  charges.  Such  guns,  if  made  of  steel  and  hooped 
precisely  as  the  gun  now  in  the  Navy  Yard,  would  weigh  only  one-half 


140  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

of  the  Rodman,  and  fire  five  hnndred  poond  solid  Bpherical  shot,  which 
with  the  stated  charges  would  beat  Armstrong  two  to  one. 

Knowing  that  your  Ordnance  oflBcers  do  not  understand  the  hooped 
gun,  I  have  thought  jour  plan  of  putting  the  20-inch  guns  into  the  Puritan 
turret  most  excellent,  and  the  only  one  that  could  at  present  be  adopted. 
The  day  will  come,  however,  when  your  Ordnance  officers  will  be  more 
severely  criticised  for  refusing  my  hooped  gun  than  the  British  admir- 
als who  refused  my  proj>eller.  Far  more  may  be  said  in  excuse  of  the 
latter  than  the  former.  I  feel  strong  enough  to  fight  another  twenty 
years,  and  therefore  quite  sure  to  gain  as  signal  a  triumph  over  your 
present  Ordnance  men  as  over  the  English  admirals  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury ago. 

Ericsson's  gun  was  an  experimental  one,  and  he  was  conscious 
of  its  imperfections,  yet,  as  he  said  in  a  letter  to  Captain  Wise, 
the  Xaval  Chief  of  Ordnance.  '*  this  gun,  with  its  imperfections 
and  its  hoops,  is  safer  probably  than  any  cast-iron  gun  ever 
made.  I  have  stated  before,  and  I  now  repeat,  that  these  im- 
perfections were  not  looked  for  and  they  are  decidedly  objec- 
tionable ;  but  I  cannot  admit  that  the  mode  adopted  by  the 
Bridgewater  Works  in  forging  the  gun  is  improper.  It  may 
be  shown  that  the  plan  of  welding  together  slabs  will  give  the 
greatest  strength  to  the  general  mass,  though  small  imperfec- 
tions in  the  centre  of  tlie  block  cannot  be  prevented  ;  but  these, 
as  I  have  before  stated,  may  be  rendered  harmless  if  the  bore 
be  lined  with  plate  iron  or  soft  steel  plate." 

As  it  required  upward  of  fifteen  tons  pressure  to  force  each 
of  his  two  hundred  hoops  or  washers  over  his  gun,  Ericsson  esti- 
mated that  ''  these  hoops,  in  virtue  of  their  inertia  and  the  recoil 
of  the  core,  opposed  to  any  disturbing  force  in  the  longitudinal 
direction  a  resistance  twenty  times  as  great  as  that  force."  The 
opinion  he  entertained  from  the  beginning,  that  the  Arm- 
strong plan  was  certain  to  fail,  was  due  to  his  knowledge  of 
the  fact  that  the  heat  required  for  this  system  of  gun  construc- 
tion utterly  destroyed  the  fibrous  nature  of  the  metal,  and  that, 
aside  from  this,  it  was  impossible  to  insure  a  sound  weld  in 
every  part.  The  welds  were  perpendicular  to  the  bore,  and,  as 
an  imperfect  welding  weakened  a  gun  in  the  direction  of  its 
length,  the  hoops  designed  to  strengthen  it  in  this  direction  of 
its  circumference  were  useless. 

After  spending  many  millions  in  experimenting  with  this 


BUILDING  AND   MOUNTING  HEAVY  GUNS.  141 

gun,  the  English  artillerists  finally  learned  the  lesson  Ericsson 
would  have  taught  them  as  the  result  of  his  experience  long 
before.  In  spite  of  his  warning,  they  insisted  on  depleting  the 
public  purse  with  target  exhibitions,  chiefly  remarkable  because 
the  guns  used  came  directly  from  the  rolling-mill,  and  after  a 
few  rounds  were  consigned  to  the  scrap-heap,  because  of  flaws 
and  imperfections  inseparable  from  the  system.  Using  the 
Army  and  Navy  Journal  as  his  medium  of  expression,  Erics- 
son continued  to  unsparingly  ridicule  British  neglect  of  Amer- 
ican precedents,  and  warn  others  of  the  certain  result ;  but 
Ephraim  was  "joined  to  his  idols,"  and  neither  argument  nor 
sarcasm  was  availing. 

"The  Government  of  the  United  States,"  said  Ericsson,  in  a 
letter  written  in  1866,  "  seriously  entertains  the  idea  of  casting 
25-inch  guns  to  throw  shot  of  a  ton  weight  for  the  Kavy.  It 
can  and  will  be  done.  Guns  of  20-inch  calibre  of  wrought  iron 
the  writer  will  some  day  make,  and  here  the  increasing  the 
size  of  guns  will  be  ended,  as  increasing  the  size  of  ships  ended 
with  the  Great  Eastern^  At  an  earlier  date,  May  19, 1862,  he 
had  said  :  "  Whatever  the  size  may  be,  there  let  us  stop,  and 
then  go  for  the  greatest  possible  initial  velocity.  The  pro- 
posed 16-inch  shot  will  in  my  opinion  be  found  very  near  the 
true  size  for  producing  maximum  effect." 

A  few  20-inch  guns  were  made  by  the  United  States,  but  with 
them  effort  in  that  direction  ceased.  Steel  has  taken  the  place 
of  in-on  for  gun  construction ;  loading  at  the  breech  has  been  sub- 
stituted for  the  clumsy  muzzle  loading;  guns  have  been  length- 
ened ;  much  study  has  been  successfully  devoted  to  the  improve- 
ment of  powder  and  projectiles,  and  muzzle  velocities  of  over 
2,000  feet  per  second  have  succeeded  to  those  of  1,600  feet. 

The  early  argument  against  heavy  navy  guns  was  the  sup- 
posed impossibility  of  handling  them  on  board  a  ship.  The 
question  of  their  success  or  failure  in  naval  warfare  was,  there- 
fore, involved  in  the  question  of  gun-carriages.  Even  the  small 
guns  used  on  board  of  men-of-war  gave  great  trouble  when  the 
only  means  of  controlling  them  was  by  use  of  rope  shackled  to 
the  ship's  ribs,  and  passed  through  a  hole  in  the  knob-like  pro- 
jection on  the  breech  of  the  gun  called  the  "  cascabel." 

A  chapter  in  Yictor  Hugo's  story  of  "  Ninety-three  "  is  de- 


142  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

voted  to  the  performances  of  a  24-pound  carronade  that  breaks 
its  mooring  on  the  royalist  corvette  Claymore^  and  "  becomes 
suddenly  some  supernatural  beast ;  a  monstrous  mechanism  for 
wrecking  a  ship  ;  cracking  the  masts  ;  multiplying  breaches  in 
the  sides  until  the  vessel  begins  to  take  water ;  disabling  the 
other  guns  of  the  battery ;  crushing  four  men  at  a  blow,  and 
cutting  a  fifth  in  two.  You  can  make  a  mastiff  hear  reason, 
astound  a  bull,  fascinate  a  boa,  frighten  a  tiger,  soften  a  lion  ; 
but  there  is  no  resource  with  that  monster,  a  cannon  let  loose. 
You  cannot  kill  it,  it  is  dead  ;  at  the  same  time  it  lives.  It 
lives  with  a  sinister  life  bestowed  upon  it  by  Infinity.  It  is 
moved  by  the  ship,  which  is  moved  by  the  sea,  which  is  moved 
by  the  wind ;  hence  its  frightful  vitality.  How  to  assail  this 
fury  of  complication  ?  How  to  fetter  this  monstrous  mechan- 
ism for  wrecking  a  ship  ? ''  This,  the  question  Hugo  asks, 
Ericsson  set  himself  to  answer  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury before  the  great  Frenchman  revived  his  reminiscence  of 
an  earlier  time  to  furnish  material  for  one  of  the  most  dra- 
matic descriptions  in  all  his  writings. 

"^e  have  seen  how  Ericsson  dealt  with  this  problem  in 
handling  his  12-inch  gun  upon  the  Princeton.  The  princi- 
ple of  control  once  established,  he  found  no  difficulty  in  extend- 
ing its  application  to  the  much  heavier  15-inch  guns  mounted 
in  the  turrets  of  the  monitors. 

The  array  gun-carriage  in  ordinary  use  was  one  developed 
by  a  gradual  process  of  evolution,  from  the  timber  block  or 
frame,  to  which  the  first  cannon  was  secured  by  straps  or  bolts. 
The  carriasres  used  for  mounting  the  oruns  of  a  naval  vessel  in 
broadside,  when  Ericsson  brought  his  ordnance  novelties  with 
him  to  the  United  States  in  1S39,  were  modifications  of  the 
army  carriages  used  in  the  casemates  of  forts.  Thej  were 
mounted  upon  wheeled  trucks  and  controlled  by  tackles,  hooked 
to  the  side  of  the  ship  on  the  right  and  left  of  the  gun.  These 
tackles  were  used  to  move  the  gun  from  side  to  side,  and  there 
was  besides  a  "  train  tackle"  hooked  to  a  ring  bolt  behind  the 
carriage.  The  recoil  was  controlled  by  the  breeching.  For 
this  clumsy  and  most  unsafe  contrivance,  as  Victor  Hugo's  de- 
scription shows  it  to  be,  Ericsson  substituted  the  carriage  illus- 
trated here. 


1.     Section  Showing  the  Friction-gear  Applied  to  the   Princeton,    1842,   and  to  the  Gun- 
carriages  of  the  United  States  Iron-clad  Fleet,  1862-67. 


2.     Section  Showing  Captain  Scott's  Plagiarism. 


J.     Section  Showing  Sir  William  Armstrong's  Plagiarism. 


144  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

The  friction-gear  for  controlling  the  recoil  is  also  shown, 
with  two  examples  of  plagiarism.  This  use  of  his  ideas  with- 
out credit  greatly  annoyed  Ericsson,  as  it  put  him  in  the  posi- 
tion of  being  himself  the  copyist.  In  a  letter  to  Bourne,  dated 
May  11, 1S06,  he  said,  in  replying  to  someone's  claim  of  priority 
for  his  invention  : 

The  motive-power  at  hand  being  small,  and  the  work  to  be  per- 
formed being  large,  a  proportionate  lapse  of  time  seemed  inevitable. 
At  last  I  examined  the  condition  of  success,  a  method  bj  which  I  have 
often  triumphed  over  seeming  mechanical  impossibilities,  Tliat  condi- 
tion in  this  case  was  a  compressor  or  friction  apparatus  remaining  al- 
tcays  under  pressure,  capable  of  being  attached  to,  or  detached  from,  the 
gun-carriage  by  some  catch  or  lock.  From  obvious  reasons,  the  ordinary 
sliding  compressor  cannot,  by  any  mechanical  expedient  whatever,  be 
kept  under  continuous  pressure.  The  idea  therefore  suggested  itself  of 
making  a  rotai-y  compressor.  On  reflection,  the  adoption  of  rotary  friC' 
lion  is  not  incompatible  with  the  condition  of  not  being  rela:ced  while  the 
gun  is  being  rolled  out,  since  the  instrument  bv  which  it  is  produced  may 
be  alternately  attached  to  the  carriage  or  detached  from  it.  With  this 
brief  introduction  I  now  refer  you  to  the  enclosed  drawing  and  descrip- 
tion. 

Fortunately,  the  invention  was  perfected  in  time  to  be  applied  and 
tested  on  board  of  the  Dictator,  by  the  talented  Commodore  John  Rodg- 
ers,  who  has  reported  to  the  Navy  Department  that  the  success  is  com- 
plete, and  that  not  a  second  is  lost  in  applying  or  relaxing  the  necessary 
friction.  As  soon  as  the  gun  has  been  loaded  the  gunner  lifts  the  check 
lever,  and  the  instant  the  gun  has  been  rolled  out  he  drops  it.  .  .  . 
The  most  remarkable  feature  of  the  trials  is  the  very  slight  tension  ap- 
plied to  the  set  sci-ews  by  which  the  friction  disks  are  brought  in  con- 
tact. It  has  been  found  that  for  55 -pound  charges  of  powder  a  force  of 
ten  pounds,  applied  at  the  end  of  a  wrench  twenty  inches  long,  is  suffi- 
cient to  tighten  the  set  nuts.  As  a  consequence  of  this  light  pressure, 
no  heat  is  produced  and  no  abrasion  takes  place  between  the  friction 
disks. 

It  may  be  asserted  that  this  apparently  trifling  invention  renders  the 
Dictator  the  most  formidable  fighting  ship  in  existence,  since  it  enables 
her  guns  to  be  worked  with  perfect  safety  in  any  weather.  It  has  been 
observed  by  many  that  the  rotary  compressor  is  a  mechanical  paradox, 
since  in  efiect  neither  time  nor  force  is  required  to  produce  or  relieve 
friction  of  the  greatest  possible  intensity.  .  .  .  By  means  of  this 
training-gear,  a  15-inch  gun  may  be  as  safely  handled  in  broadside  as 
in  a  turret.  The  question  is  simply  one  of  proportion  and  strength  of 
parts,  which  every  well-informed  engineer  can  determine. 

As  the  British  iron-clad  navy  is  composed  solely  of  broadside  ves- 


BUILDING   AND   MOUNTING   HEAVY   GUNS.  145 

sels,  this  gun-carriage  is  of  such  paramount  importance,  and  so  inti- 
mately connected  with  the  system,  that  I  could  not  withhold  the  model. 

In  the  Princeton  gun-carriage  the  iron  plates  were  pressed 
against  the  timbers  by  a  cam.  In  i\\G  Monitor  carriage  a  screw 
was  substituted  for  the  transverse  axle  and  its  cam,  but,  as  the 
operation  of  the  screw  was  slow  compared  with  the  almost  in- 
stantaneous action  of  the  cam,  Ericsson  subsequently  returned 
to  his  original  idea.     He  gives  a  full  account  of  his  invention 


Muzzle  View  of  12-inch   Princeton   Gun,   Showing  Friction-gear  of  Carriage. 

in  another  characteristic  letter  to  Bourne.  Speaking  of  the 
slow  fire  of  the  Monitor  guns,  and  explaining  that  it  was  due 
to  the  time  occupied  in  tightening  and  loosening  the  com- 
pressor designed  to  check  the  recoil,  he  says : 

It  was  John  Ericsson  who  first  dispensed  with  breeching  for  check- 
ing the  recoil  of  naval  ordnance.  In  1842  he  introduced  wrought-iron 
carriages  composed  of  plate  iron,  precisely  like  the  Monitor  carriages, 
for  the  12-inch  guns  of  the  Princeton,  with  longitudinal  timbers  at- 
tached to  the  slides  under  the  carriage,  which  timbers  were  pinched 
between  iron  plates  for  the  purpose  of  checking  the  recoil  of  the  piece. 
So  completely  did  the  plan  answer  that  the  recoil  of  the  12-inch  gun 
fired  with  thirty-pound  charges  was  checked  in  a  distance  of  sixteen 
Vol.  II.— 10. 


146 


LIFE   OF   JOHN   EPwICSSON. 


inches.  No  trouble  whatever  was  experienced  with  the  compressors 
thus  introduced.  The  invention  proved  a  perfect  success  from  the 
start.  It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  Mr.  Mallet  must  go  further  back 
than  1856  to  establish  his  claim  to  be  the  original  inventor  of  compres- 
sors for  preventing  the  recoil  of  guns. 

Accompanying  this  letter  was  a  model  of  which  the  inven- 
tor said  :  "  It  is  intended  as  a  present  to  the  Emperor  of  the 
French,  who  has  acted  ungeneronsly  toward  the  writer,  and 
thereby  engendered  a  desire  to  shame  his  Majesty." 


Rotary  Gun-carriage  and  Transit  Platform  Applied  to  the  Spanish  Gunboat  Tornado,  1873. 


On  December  19,  1S65,  Captain  Fox  wrote  to  Ericsson, 
stating  that  the  naval  gun-carriage  could  not  he  used  in  a  sea- 
way, was  very  clumsy,  defective  mechanically,  and  altogether 
unsatisfactory.  lie  asked  Ericsson  to  provide  an  iron  pivot- 
carriage.  This  was  furnished,  and  nearly  five  years  later,  June 
11,  1870,  Commander  Edward  Simpson,  IT.  S,  Navy,  reported 
that  he  had  tried  the  Ericsson  carriage,  and  found  it  capable  of 
enduring  the  most  severe  tests  under  lire.  The  compressor  gear 
— consisting  of  a  cam  moved  by  a  lever  as  on  the  Princeton — 
was  found  fully  competent  to  stop  the  movement  of  the  gun 
at  any  point  when  it  was  in  motion,  its  action  being  complete 
and  instantaneous,  and  quite  as  effective  as  that  of  the  carriage 


BUILDING   AND   MOUNTING   HEAVY   GUNS.  147 

requiring  a  slow-moving  screw  to  tighten  the  compressor.  The 
cut  on  the  opposite  page  shows  a  pivot-carriage  of  this  descrip- 
tion pLaced  on  the  Spanish  gunboat  Tornado  in  1873. 

May  1,  1876,  Commodore  William  N.  JefPers,  Chief  of  the 
Bureau  of  Ordnance,  made  a  request  similar  to  that  of  Captain 
Fox,  saying  "  that  he  had  devised  a  carriage  which  did  not  al- 
together please  him,  and  he  did  not  like  the  hydraulic  buffer 
system,  and  preferred  Ericsson's  method  of  using  friction. 
November  22d  following  he  wrote,  saying : 

"  When  I  returned  from  New  York  I  informed  the  officers 
at  the  Washington  Navy  Yard  that  I  was  so  well  satisfied  with 
your  carriage  that  I  should  make  no  more  of  the  regulation  one, 
and  that,  if  they  could  not  devise  one  as  good  or  better  than 
yours,  their  occupation  was  gone.  This  stirred  them  up,  and 
they  now  have  a  design  which  I  propose  building  for  the  third 
carriage,  mounting  yours  side  by  side,  and  theirs  aft." 


CHAPTER  XXYni. 

THE  ART   OF   WAR   IN   ITS   INFANCY. 

Neutralization  of  the  Ocean  Proposed. — Beneficial  Results  of  the  Pro- 
fessional Study  of  "War. — Subaquatic  Attack. — The  Role  of  the 
Heavy  Armored  Vessel  Ended.— Locomotive  Torpedoes. — The 
Amphibic  Projectile. 

IN  1810,  Robert  Fulton,  "  Fellow  of  the  American  Philoso- 
phical Society,  and  of  the  United  States  Military  and 
Philosophical  Society,"  as  he  styled  himself,  published  at  New 
York  a  pamphlet  on  "  Torpedo  AV^ar  and  Submarine  Explo- 
sions."    The  title-page  bore  this  significant  motto  : 

"  The  liberty  of  the  seas  wiU  be  the  happiness  of  the  earth." 

"What  is  here  indefinitely  suggested  by  Fulton  we  find  de- 
clared by  Ericsson  in  distinct  terms.  In  explaining  a  propo- 
sition he  made  in  1870  to  demonstrate  the  efficiency  of  his 
method  of  under-water  attack  by  sinking,  with  his  submarine 
projectiles,  a  vessel  while  it  was  being  towed  by  at  any  practi- 
cal rate  of  speed,  he  said  :  "  My  only  object  is  that  of  seeing 
the  sea  declared  by  all  nations  as  sacred  neutral  ground.  It 
is  the  highway  of  mankind."  *  Again  he  said  :  "  The  art  of 
war,  as  I  have  always  contended,  is  positivelj'  in  its  infancy. 
When  perfected,  man  will  be  forced  to  live  in  peace  with  man. 
This  glorious  result,  which  has  been  the  cherished  dream  of  my 
life,  will  unquestionably  be  attained  before  the  close  of  the  pres- 
ent century."  f 

Only  ten  years  of  the  century  remain,  and  no  doubt  this 
forecast  as  to  the  neutralization  of  the  ocean  will  prove  to  have 
been  too  sanguine  ;  yet,  certainly  no  one  familiar  with  the  sub- 

*  Letter  to  G.  V.  Fox,  May  12,  1870. 

f  Letter  to  John  Bourne,  December  21,  1866. 


THE  ART   OF   WAR  IN   ITS   INFANCY.  149 

ject  can  fail  to  be  struck  with  this  prophecy  as  to  the  future  de- 
velopment of  the  art  of  war.  It  is  a  quarter  of  a  century  since 
it  was  recorded,  and  within  that  period  what  enormous  changes 
have  taken  place  !  Powders  have  been  improved,  and  the  use 
of  high  explosives  has  added  another' element  of  horror  to  war- 
fare. New  factors  have  been  introduced,  and  the  power  of  the 
old  enormously  extended.  War  vessels  have  increased  their 
thickness  of  armor  four-  and  five-fold,  in  the  vain  hope  of  ex- 
cluding projectiles  fired  from  guns  whose  power  has  been  de- 
veloped in  still  greater  ratio  ;  while  enemies  hidden  beneath  the 
sea  assail  the  cumbersome  armor-clads  where  they  are  without 
defence. 

Concerning  the  improvements  since  Ericsson  sent,  in  1854, 
to  Xapoleon  III.,  a  proposition  for  a  monitor  vessel.  Captain 
Noble  said,  in  an  address  before  the  British  Association, 
August,  1890  :  "  Since  that  date — whether  we  have  regard  to 
our  vessels  of  war,  the  guns  with  which  they  and  our  fortresses 
are  armed,  the  carriages  upon  which  those  guns  are  mounted, 
or  the  ammunition  they  employ — we  shall  find  that  changes  so 
great  and  so  important  have  been  made  that  they  amount  to  a 
complete  revolution.  I  believe  it  would  be  more  correct  to  say 
several  complete  revolutions.  It  is  at  least  certain  that  the 
changes  which  were  made  within  the  period  of  ten  years  fol- 
lowing 1854,  were  far  more  important  and  wide-spreading  in 
their  character  than  were  all  the  improvements  made  during 
the  whole  of  the  great  wars  of  the  last  and  the  commencement 
of  the  present  century." 

Xelson's  Victory  had,  at  Trafalgar,  102  guns  ;  the  Victoria, 
of  the  present  British  Navy,  has  44,  including  machine  and 
torpedo  guns.  The  heaviest  gun  of  the  Victory  was  three 
tons  ;  the  Victoria  has  guns  w'eighing  110  tons.  The  Victory 
threw  a  broadside  of  1,150  pounds  with  350  pounds  of  powder; 
the  Victoria  throws  one  of  4,750  pounds  with  3,120  pounds  of 
powder ;  and  its  dynamic  force  is  ten  times  that  of  Nelson's 
ship.  The  charge  has  been  increased  from  10  pounds  to  1,000 
pounds,  and  the  weight  of  the  shot  from  68  pounds  to  1,800 
pounds. 

Ericsson  was  not  alone  in  his  opinion  as  to  the  results  to 
follow  improvement  in  the  art  of  waging  war.     It  would  not 


150  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

be  difficult  to  show  that  we  are  more  indebted  to  the  profes- 
sional soldier  than  to  the  peace  advocate,  for  our  advance  be- 
yond the  original  condition  of  barbarism,  when  every  man  was 
on  his  defence  against  his  neighbor,  and  peaceful  industry  was 
unknown.  There  is  as  little  reason  to  hold  the  profession  of 
arms  responsible  for  war  as  there  is  to  ascribe  disease  to  the  doc- 
tors, or  sin  to  the  clergy.  Equally  with  them,  the  soldier  regu- 
lates, controls,  or  limits  disorders  he  has  no  part  in  creating. 

As  the  experience  of  war  is  happily  intermittent,  the  delu- 
sions concerning  the  social  disorders  finding  their  cure  through 
this  species  of  phlebotomy  are  common.  Misjudgments  con- 
cerning those  who  practise  it  are  equally  common,  and  the  real 
value  to  the  community  of  those  whose  business  it  is  to  increase 
the  efficiency  of  military  establishments  is  not  understood. 
"When  Ericsson  was  asked  how  a  man  of  his  philanthropic  dispo- 
sition could  devote  his  talents  to  improving  the  weapons  of  war, 
he  answered  that  the  surest  way  to  discredit  war  was  to  direct  all 
the  resources  of  mechanical  ingenuity  to  making  it  a  pastime  at 
which  not  even  kings  could  afford  to  play.  He  believed  too  in 
the  possibility  of  equalizing  the  conditions  between  the  stronger 
and  weaker  nations;  just  as  engineering  and  inventive  skill  have 
in  a  measure  equalized  the  conditions  between  rich  and  poor,  by 
placing  within  reach  of  the  humblest,  luxuries  and  enjoyments 
unknown  to  the  most  favored  half  a  century  ago. 

Improvement  in  warlike  appliances,  and  the  professional 
study  of  %yar,  tend  to  destroy  the  demoralizing  sentiment  of  per- 
sonal hostility  toward  a  public  enemy,  encountered  in  battle. 
There  is  nothing  to  produce  this  sentiment  in  the  breast  of  a 
man  absorbed  in  scientific  manipulation  of  warlike  machinery,  or 
in  solving  problems  of  logistics,  strategy,  and  tactics  at  such  a 
distance  from  an  enemy  that  the  loss  of  life,  to  which  he  con- 
tributes, figures  in  personal  consciousness  only  as  one  item  in  the 
statistics  of  a  great  contest,  or  among  the  sounding  phrases  of 
a  war  bulletin.  Thus  emancipation  from  some  of  the  worst  evils 
of  war  is  through  men  wlio,  whether  so  intending  or  not,  have 
accomplished  a  distinctively  philanthropic  purpose  in  devoting 
mechanical  orenius  to  the  science  of  destruction. 

Fulton,  who  introduced  us  to  the  steamboat,  and  Ericsson, 
who  did  so  much  to  improve  it,  were,  both  of  them,  equally  at 


THE   ART   OF   TVAK   IX   ITS   INFANCY.  151 

home  in  the  art  of  destruction.  Three-quarters  of  a  century 
ago,  Fulton,  in  his  experiments  with  the  Dorothea,  gave  a 
striking  illustration  of  the  destructive  effect  of  a  charge  fired 
from  beneath  a  vessel.  The  Dorothea  was  a  Danish  brig  of 
200  tons  burden  and  solid  construction,  drawing  twelve  feet 
of  water.  She  was  anchored  in  the  roadstead  of  "Wermland, 
near  Deal,  England.  Two  boats,  each  carrying  a  torpedo 
loaded  with  two  hundred  pounds  of  powder,  rowed  on  opposite 
sides  of  the  vessel  and  dropped  their  burdens  overboard.  The 
two  torpedoes  were  united  by  a  cord,  and  as  the  current  carried 
this  foul  of  the  ship's  keel,  one  or  both  of  them  was  thrown 
against  the  ship's  bottom  and  discharged  at  a  given  moment 
by  a  clock-work  attachment. 

The  experiment  in  this  instance  worked  perfectly.  The 
doomed  Dorothea  rose  six  feet,  broke  in  two  amidships,  and  in 
twenty  seconds  sank  out  of  sight,  leaving  nothing  but  a  float- 
ing mass  of  debris  to  show  where  she  had  been  anchored. 
The  experiment  was  tried  in  the  presence  of  Colonel  Congreve, 
of  rocket  fame,  Admiral  Holloway,  Sir  Sidney  Smith,  and  most 
of  the  officers  of  the  British  fleet  under  command  of  Lord 
Keith.  The  complete  success  of  this  Yankee  infernal  machine 
produced  due  astonishment,  but  was  without  other  result.  Pitt 
and  Lord  Melville  were  at  first  disposed  to  encourage  Fulton,  but 
Count  St.  Vincent  said,  with  great  force  :  '"  Pitt  is  the  greatest 
fool  that  ever  lived  to  encourage  a  kind  of  warfare  useless  to 
those  who  are  masters  of  the  sea,  and  which,  if  successful, 
would  deprive  them  of  their  supremacy." ' 

Numerous  attempts  have  been  made  since  then  to  develop 
this  form  of  attack,  until  now  torpedoes,  and  vessels  especially 
designed  for  their  use,  are  part  of  the  recognized  machinery  of 
naval  warfare.  Bushneirs  "  battle  of  the  kegs,"  during  our 
war  of  the  Revolution  ;  Xix's  attack  on  H.  M.  S.  Plantagenet 
in  1S12  ;  the  use  of  torpedoes  at  Sebastopol  and  Cronstadt  in 
the  Crimean  war ;  the  destruction  effected  by  them  during  the 
Danish  war  of  1S64  ;  in  the  AustroTtalian  and  Paraguayan  wars 
of  1S66  ;  in  the  Anglo-Peruvian  conflict  of  1S77  ;  in  the  Turco- 
Russian  war  of  ISTT-TS ;  and  their  more  decided  success  as 
used  by  the  Confederates  during  our  Civil  War  in  blowing  up 
sixteen  Federal  vessels,  all  mark  so  many  steps  in  the  progress 


152  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

toward  their  final  adoption.  Against  them  professional  senti- 
ment has  protested  in  vain.  The  courtly  usages  of  war  are  no 
longer  recognized  on  sea  or  land,  and  the  resources  of  modem 
science  are  exhausted  in  the  effort  to  render  naval  combats  es- 
pecially, short  and  sharp,  if  not  decisive.  The  result  has  un- 
doubtedly been  to  make  the  maritime  nations  hesitate,  more 
than  ever  before,  to  provoke  a  naval  contest,  as  it  is  wholly 
impossible  to  estimate  the  relative  value  of  the  new  factors  en- 
tering into  the  determination  of  such  a  contest.  As  an  officer 
of  the  U.  S.  Xavy,  Lieutenant  Bradley  A.  Fiske,  has  said  in  a 
recent  magazine  article,  *'  the  only  thing  that  can  determine 
the  real  conditions  of  modern  naval  warfare  is  a  modern  naval 
war.'' 

Tiie  tendency  of  military  reasoning  is  to  limit  the  science 
of  destruction  within  certain  well-defined  bounds.  Engineering 
invention  seeks  to  develop  it  to  the  utmost,  without  regard  to 
ethical  considerations.  Thus,  Fulton's  efforts  to  introduce  his 
system  of  submarine  attack  into  France  were  thwarted  by  the 
prejudices  of  the  Minister  of  Marine  against  a  system  of  war- 
fare which  he  considered  only  fitted  for  Barbary  corsairs. 
"What  will  become  of  navies,  exclaimed  another  French  au- 
thority, St.  Aubin,  and  where  will  sailors  be  found  to  man  our 
ships-of-war,  when  it  is  a  physical  certainty  that  they  may  at 
any  moment  be  blown  into  the  air  by  means  of  diving-boats, 
against  which  no  human  foresight  can  guard  them  ? 

The  struggle  between  gun  and  armor  has  continued  until,  if 
not  actually  determined  in  favor  of  the  gun,  it  is  certainly  lim- 
iting the  role  of  the  armored  vessel.  It  seems  to  be  destined 
to  a  transformation,  similar  to  that  ascribed  by  the  palaeontolo- 
gist to  the  free-roaming  sea  monster  which  gradually  accumu- 
lated defensive  scales,  until  its  freedom  of  motion  was  destroyed, 
and  it  became  the  sluggish  and  amphibious  crocodile.  It  is  the 
man  of  genius  like  Ericsson  who  forecasts  such  possibilities  and 
adapts  his  plans  to  them  in  the  beginning,  while  others  must 
travel  to  his  conclusion  by  the  laborious  and  costly  methods  of 
experience. 

Acute  observers  are  questioning  whether  England,  and  the 
naval  powers  who  follow  her  lead,  are  not  again  wasting  their 
hundreds  of  millions  on  vessels  that,  in  their  hour  of  trial,  will 


THE   ART   OF   WAR   IN   ITS   INFANCY.  153 

prove  of  as  little  value  as  were  the  thousand  unarmored  ships, 
swelling  the  British  naval  lists  when  the  contest  in  Hampton 
Roads  awakened  England  from  her  dream  of  security. 

No  man  was  more  competent  to  form  a  judgment  on  this 
question  than  John  Ericsson,  and  he  was  most  emphatically  of 
the  opinion  that  the  day  for  the  sea-going  armor-clad  had 
passed.  Not  that  vessels  bearing  armor  were  necessarily  use- 
less, but  that  no  vessel  could  be  built  to  carry  on  the  open  sea 
the  armor  needed  for  her  perfect  protection,  even  against  the 
guns  ;  while  for  defence  against  submarine  attack  armor  was 
worse  than  useless,  decreasing  flotation  without  offering  se- 
curity. 

"  I  look  upon  the  enormous  thickness  of  armor  now  being 
introduced  in  England,  and  the  new  monster  guns  building," 
he  said  in  ISTi,  ''  as  the  expiring  efforts  of  the  Island  Queen 
to  retain  her  supremacy  on  the  sea.  The  tnovcbble  torpedo  will 
inevitably  render  these  efforts  unavailing." 

United  Italy,  accepting  the  opinion  of  the  first  Napoleon, 
that  she  could  never  maintain  her  integrity  until  she  had  be- 
come a  great  naval  power,  resolved  to  build  vessels  more  for- 
midable than  any  afloat,  and  put  upon  the  sea  the  Dallio  and 
the  Dandolo^  mastless  turret-ships  then  of  unusual  size,  10,570 
tons,  partially  protected  with  armor  14  to  22  inches  thick,  and 
carrying  100-ton  guns.  These  were  followed  by  the  Italia 
and  Lepanto,  of  13,851  tons,  carrying  armor  16  and  33f  inches 
thick,  and  each  costing  in  round  figures  $4,000,000.  Writing 
of  the  earlier  vessels,  Ericsson  said :  * 

"  In  a  naval  point  of  view,  I  regard  the  construction  of  the 
Duilio  and  the  Dandolo  as  the  greatest  folly  of  our  time,  while 
I  consider  the  present  contest,  so  much  talked  about,  between 
guns  and  armor,  as  a  waste  of  time  and  means.  What  is  the 
use  of  mounting  100-ton  guns  and  putting  24-inch  thick  ar- 
mor on  a  frail  raft  which  may  be  attacked  by  a  small  craft  capa- 
ble of  approaching,  in  defiance  of  the  fire  of  the  monster 
guns,  and  capable  of  piercing  the  said  raft,  in  spite  of  the  24 
inches  of  armor?  England  committed  a  fatal  blunder  in  fol- 
lowing Napoleon's  lead,  by  building  sea-going  iron-clads.  Had 
you  drawn  on  your  mechanical  resources  and  produced  small 
*  Letters  to  John  Bourne,  January  24,  1879,  and  March  7,  1879. 


154  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

craft,  capable  of  sinking  the  cuirassed  ships,  otlier  nations 
would  never  have  followed  the  example  of  the  man  of  whom 
historj  can  sav,  that  he  never  did  the  right  thing.  Take  my 
advice;  construct  Destroyers  to  sink  the  iron-clads  of  designing 
neighbors,  but  let  England  cease  to  build  the  useless  iron  cita- 
dels whose  bursting  guns  now  threaten  to  destroy  the  morale 
of  the  British  sailor.  Do  this,  and  your  prowess  and  over- 
whelming numbers  will  again  enable  Britannia  to  rule  the 
waves." 

In  a  letter  to  his  brother  ]!sils,  Ericsson  said  :  "  I  am  so 
concerned  in  the  welfare  of  my  native  country  that  I  cannot 
refrain  from  asking  you  to  do  all  you  can  to  correct  tbe  mis- 
take of  the  Government  in  building  large  iron-clads.  "We  now 
call  such  vessels  '  torpedo  food.'  The  larger,  the  better  targets 
they  will  be  for  the  torpedo."  *  These  opinions  were  the  re- 
sult of  Ericsson's  confidence  in  snbaquatic  attack.  This  he  be- 
lieved would  make  it  possible  to  sink  the  heaviest  of  armor-clads 
by  blowing  a  hole  in  her  hull  far  under  water.  Early  in  his  career 
he  had  planned  several  movable  torpedoes,  and  from  the  time 
that  he  introduced  the  present  system  of  screw  propulsion  for 
ships-of-war  in  the  United  States,  his  attention  was  specially 
directed  to  the  subject  of  "  snbaquatic  "  attack.  The  propeller 
was  a  great  step  in  advance  in  this  direction,  as  it  enabled  the 
motive  power  to  be  applied  at  any  depth.  The  difficulty  re- 
maining was  that  of  storing  a  sufficient  amount  of  energy 
within  the  submarine  torpedo.  In  a  letter  dated  July  31, 
ISTS,  he  said,  speaking  of  the  Whitehead  torpedo: 

'•'  The  most  important  part  of  the  whole  contrivance  is  my 
instrument  for  driving  the  fish  ahead.  You  are  aware  that 
since  ^Ir.  Davidson,  of  TToolwich  Dock-yard,  copied  my  double 
torpedo  propeller,  "Whitehead  has  also  adopted  the  plan  of  em- 
ploying two  propellers  revolving  in  opposite  directions  round  a 
common  centre,  one  behind  tbe  other.  As  to  actuating  the 
propeller  by  compressed  air,  I  proposed  that  motor  for  subma- 
rine attack  more  than  forty  years  ago  ;  and  before  "Whitehead 
liad  constructed  a  compressed-air  engine  I  had  built  scores  of 
such  motors.  As  to  the  horizontal  rudder,  acted  upon  by  the 
various  hydrostatic  pressures  at  different  depths,  all  schemers 
*  Letter  to  Baron  Nils  Ericson,  April  10,  1875. 


THE   ART  OF   WAE  IN"  ITS   INFANCY.  155 

in  submarine  torpedoes  who  preceded  Whitehead,  myself  in- 
duded,  resorted  to  tliat  obvious  device." 

Twelve  years  before  this,  in  a  letter  to  John  Bourne, 
February  22,  1S66,  he  had  said :  "  The  plan  of  firing  under 
water  has  been  proposed  to  the  United  States  Government  dur- 
ing the  war  by  more  than  a  score  of  inventors.  Wealthy  par- 
ties in  Boston  entered  into  a  contract  with  the  !Xavy  Depart- 
ment to  build  vessels  on  this  plan,  but  found,  by  experimentally 
firing  guns  of  heavy  calibre  under  water,  that  it  was  impossible 
to  produce  the  destructive  effect  promised  ;  consequently  they 
abandoned  the  contract,  after  having  spent  a  large  sum.  Several 
inventors,  some  from  Sweden,  have  sent  me  plans  of  under- 
water artillery.  The  subject  has  engaged  my  attention  for 
thirty  years.  It  is  not  promising."  Again  he  wrote,  saying : 
"More  than  thirty  years  ago  I  devised  the  method  of  employ- 
ing a  '  movable  and  adjustable  base'  from  which  submarine 
torpedoes  could  be  despatched  toward  any  desired  point.  I 
forwarded,  in  the  month  of  September,  1S5J:,  plans  and  descrip- 
tions of  this  method  to  Emperor  Xapoleon  III.,  the  documents 
being  presented  by  the  Swedish  Ambassador  at  Paris.  The 
modification  of  employing  a  tubular  cable  attached  to  a  reel 
applied  on  board  of  some  small  iron-clad  vessel,  was  perfected 
before  the  conclusion  of  the  late  war." 

These  statements  carry  back  Ericsson's  first  suggestion  of 
the  device  described  beyond  the  time  when  Samuel  Colt  made 
his  experiments  with  torpedoes  in  Xew  York  Harbor,  It  was 
on  the  4th  of  July,  1S42,  that  Colt  blew  up  the  Boxer  off  Cas- 
tle Garden,  and  in  October  following  the  Fo/^fa  in  the  Potomac, 
in  the  presence  of  the  President,  members  of  the  Cabinet,  Gen- 
eral Scott,  and  thousands  of  spectators.  This  was  followed,  April 
13,  1S13,  by  the  blowing  up  of  a  brig  of  five  hundred  tons  from 
Alexandria,  Ya.,  at  a  distance  of  five  miles  from  the  point  where 
she  was  passing  under  sail.  The  next  year  Congress  voted  to 
purchase  Colt's  invention,  the  secret  of  which  is  said  to  have 
died  with  him  in  1 862. 

The  scheme  of  naval  warfare  submitted  to  Xapoleon  III.  in 
September,  1854,  was  not  revealed  by  Ericsson  until  it  became 
necessary  to  defend  himself  against  the  claims  of  priority  of  in- 
vention  raised  by  Captain  Coles.     Nor  was  the  full  scheme 


156  LIFE   OF   JOnN   ERICSSON. 

even  then  made  public.  It  included  a  plan  for  submarine  as- 
sault and  this  was  reserved  for  future  contingencies.  From 
the  illustrations  supposed  to  represent  the  drawing  submitted 
to  the  Emperor  of  the  French,  this  was  omitted,  and  is  here  for 
the  first  time  presented  on  pages  238  and  239  of  volume  i. 

At  that  early  date  Ericsson  clearly  apprehended  the  con- 
ditions which,  in  practical  experience,  have  always  controlled 
naval  warfare,  and  must  continue  to  control  it  to  the  end.  How- 
ever we  may  extend  the  range  of  artillery,  naval  engagements 
nmst  be  settled  at  close  quarters.  The  ram,  on  which  so  much 
reliance  is  placed,  requires  actual  contact,  as  do  fixed  torpedoes, 
while  the  auto-mobile  torpedoes  can  only  be  operated  effectively 
from  the  near  distance.  Ericsson's  studies,  as  early  as  1845,  had 
shown  that  the  law  of  parabolic  progress,  controlling  projectiles 
flying  through  the  air,  does  not  apply  to  bodies  propelled 
through  water,  and  having  the  same  specific  gravity  as  the 
water.  These  proceed  in  a  straight  line  until  their  motive 
force  is  exhausted.  Applying  this  principle,  he  proposed  to 
adopt  the  most  obvious  method  of  submarine  attack,  that  of 
piercing  a  ship's  hull  by  an  explosive  projectile  expelled  from 
a  tube  lying  near  the  bottom  of  the  attacking  vessel,  and 
communicating  with  valves  at  each  end.  One  of  these  valves 
was  to  be  closed  behind  the  projectile,  to  shut  out  the  water  from 
the  tube,  and  the  other  opened  in  front  of  it  to  admit  of  its 
passage  on  its  submarine  journey. 

The  limited  range  of  such  missiles,  and  the  difiiculty  found 
in  controlling  their  course,  induced  Ericsson  to  first  attempt 
some  other  method  of  accomplishing  his  purpose.  Accordinglj-, 
he  published,  in  the  spring  of  1870,  a  description  of  a  torpedo 
to  be  moved  and  directed  by  compressed  air,  communicated 
through  a  flexible  tube,  payed  out  from  a  reel  on  board  the 
torpedo  or  from  one  on  shore.  Four  years  before  this  date,  in 
Xovember,  1866,  he  had  communicated  the  details  of  this  sys- 
tem to  the  King  of  Sweden  and  Korway,  and  to  his  friends. 
Count  B.  Von  Platen,  Swedish  Minister  of  Marine,  and  Com- 
modore A.  Adlersparre,  Assistant  Minister  of  Marine, 

Believing  that  by  means  of  his  invention  aggression  might 
be  efFectually  resisted,  lie  ]uibHslied  to  the  whole  world  a  de- 
scription of  his  apparatus,  so  minute  and  exact  that  any  iutelli- 


THE   ART   OF   WAR   IN   ITS   INFANCY.  157 

gent  mechanic  could  construct  it.  His  sympathies  were  always 
against  the  powers  disposed  to  infringe  upon  the  liberties  of 
others,  and  his  brains  always  at  the  service  of  those  whose  atti- 
tude was  that  of  defence  against  them.  lie  sent  his  descriptions 
and  drawings  to  professional  papers  here  and  in  England,  and 
forwarded  copies  to  Vice-Admiral  Porter  (April  13,  1870),  to 
the  Chief  of  the  Naval  Bureau  of  Ordnance,  and  to  the  Naval 
Committees  of  the  Senate  and  the  House  of  Representatives. 
He  also  entered  upon  a  controversy  to  establish  the  superiority 
of  his  sj'stem  over  that  of  other  locomotive  torpedoes.  The 
scope  of  this  device,  as  he  took  pains  to  explain,  was  limited. 
Yet  he  said :  "  Had  the  Italians  possessed  it,  the  result  at  Lissa 
would  have  been  different.  They  could  have  turned  the  tables 
on  the  Austrians  who  made  such  havoc  with  their  rams.  No 
harbor  can  be  entered  which  is  protected  by  it ;  nor  would 
any  amount  of  vigilance  save  vessels  from  destruction  on  an 
enemy's  coast  defended  by  it.  .  .  ,  My  object  in  giving  an 
account  of  my  labors  connected  with  submarine  warfare  is  sim- 
ply that  of  demonstrating  the  futility  of  encasing  ships  of  war 
with  huge  masses  of  iron,  and  showing  the  absurdity  of  wast- 
ing millions  of  tons  of  coal  in  propelling  weight  which  does 
not  protect,"  * 

In  connection  with  his  description  of  this  new  locomotive 
torpedo,  Ericsson  made  public  the  details  of  his  plan  of  attack 
by  guns  mounted  behind  armor,  and  firing  elongated  projectiles 
designed  to  enter  the  water  at  such  an  angle  as  to  pierce  a  ves- 
sel's unarmored  hull.  Lest  he  should  be  accused  of  plagiarism 
in  his  method  of  loading  his  guns  by  depressing  their  muz- 
zles below  the  water-line,  and  inserting  the  projectile  from  the 
hold,  he  said  :  "  I  feel  called  upon  to  state,  that  loading  guns 
below  deck,  as  here  shown,  was  planned  by  me,  and  drawings 
representing  this  method  exhibited  in  New  York  several  years 
before  it  was  claimed  by  certain  American  engineers  as  their 
invention." 

He  had  such  confidence  in  his  plan  of  attack,  that  he  pro- 
posed, as  already  stated,  to  furnish  at  his  own  cost  and  risk,  a 
swift  screw- vessel,  provided  with  a  pair  of  1 5-inch  smooth  bore 
guns,  and  the  necessary  apparatus  for  sinking  by  submarine  ex- 
*  Letter  to  London  Engineering,  dated  March  11,  1870. 


158 


LIFE   OF   JOHN    ERICSSON". 


plosion  a  vessel  of  the  average  draught  of  the  iron-clad  fleet  of 
England,  while  she  was  being  towed  at  the  greatest  speed  pos- 
sible, or  performing  whatever  evolutions  her  owner  might 
prefer,  with  the  distinct  understanding  that  the  attack  was  to 
be  made  at  a  less  distance  than  500  feet.  "  If,"  he  said,  "  a 
first-class  swift  iron-clad  ship,  say  the  Devastation,  unassisted 
by  other  craft,  will  meet  in  open  water  a  vessel  constructed 
agreeably  to  the  new  system,  it  is  contended  that  the  latter 


Torpedo  Actuated  by  Compressed  Air  Transmitted  through  a  Tubular  Cable. 


will  sink  the  breast-work  monitor  in  spite  of  her  guns,  and 
notwithstanding  evolutions  designed  to  avoid  the  submarine 
missiles." 

The  Xavy  Department  were  in  receipt  of  various  commu- 
nications from  Ericsson  at  this  time  on  the  subject  of  his  sys- 
tem of  naval  attack,  but,  perplexed  by  innumerable  projects 
recommended  to  them  for  defending  our  harbors,  they  were 
unable  to  come  to  any  determination.  Ericsson  was  confident 
that  professional  sentiment  would  come  around  to  him  in  time, 


THE   ART   OF   WAR   IN   ITS   IXFANCY.  159 

and  he  wrote  to  Commodore  Adlersparre :  *  "It  is  well  I 
have  not  been  hasty  in  carrying  out  the  amphibic  projectile,  since 
naval  tactics  have  in  the  meantime  been  quite  revolutionized  in 
consequence  of  the  adoption  of  the  Harvey  torpedo  and  the 
boom  torpedo,  both  of  which  call  for  fighting  at  close  quarters. 
Had  I,  four  years  ago,  proposed  to  fight  at  a  distance  of  500 
feet  (the  best  range  for  the  amphibic  weapon),  my  opponents 
in  the  American  Xavy  would  have  proved  such  a  short  range 
to  be  an  insuperable  objection.  But  noio  those  opponents  are 
daily  exercising  their  crews  in  the  art  of  destroying  their  ene- 
mies by  exploding  powder  bags  at  the  end  of  booms  only  twen- 
ty feet  long  !  " 

For  several  years  the  controversy  which  Ericsson  had  inau- 
gurated continued,  and  if  he  did  not  succeed  in  establishing  pro- 
fessional confidence  in  his  own  schemes  of  submarine  attack,  he 
did  succeed,  by  his  powerful  logic  and  his  convincing  array  of 
facts,  in  demonstrating  the  futility  of  other  schemes.  A  ]S^aval 
Board  reported  favorably  on  a  torpedo  actuated  by  the  genera- 
tion of  carbonic  acid  gas,  and  controlled  bj'  electricity  trans- 
mitted from  the  shore  through  an  insulated  wire.  In  a  series 
of  vigorous  articles,  Ericsson  demonstrated  the  weakness  of 
this  form  of  attack.  He  proved  by  a  mathematical  demonstra- 
tion, from  which  there  was  no  escape,  that  three-quarters  or 
four-fifths  of  the  explosive  force  of  the  five  hundred  pounds  of 
nitro-glycerine  proposed  as  a  charge  for  this  torpedo,  would  be 
wasted,  so  that  the  actual  force  would  be  the  equivalent  of 
only  one  hundred  pounds  of  explosive  distributed  over  six 
square  feet  of  armor-plate.  He  pointed  out  very  clearly  the 
difficulty,  if  not  the  impossibility,  of  getting  the  torpedo  in 
question  into  a  position  to  exert  even  this  amount  of  force, 
with  a  vigilant  enemy  on  the  defence  against  it. 

The  result  was  a  challenge  from  the  proprietor  of  the  tor- 
pedo in  question,  Mr.  Lay,  to  a  competitive  trial,  with  a  forfeit 
of  $10,000  by  the  defeated  party.  This  challenge  was  accept- 
ed under  certain  conditions,  but  these  were  not  found  accepta- 
ble. The  two  torpedoes  were,  indeed,  so  unlike  that  it  was 
impossible  to  agree  upon  a  common  ground  of  comparison.  As 
neither  of  them  was  a  success  this  is  immaterial.  In  the  case  of 
*  Letter  to  Commodore  A.  Adlersparre,  January  23,  1874. 


160  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

Ericsson's,  it  was  found  that  the  drag  of  the  hollow  cable  car- 
rying the  air  from  the  compressor  to  the  torpedo,  so  interfered 
with  the  steering  that  the  torpedo  was  nearly  unmanageable. 
The  controversy  between  the  two  inventors  served,  however,  to 
clear  the  way  for  something  better  than  either  of  their  devices, 
by  convincing  Ericsson  that  he  had  not  yet  accomplished  the  re- 
sult he  was  after. 

The  controversy  here  referred  to  was  carried  on  by  Ericsson 
through  the  columns  of  the  Army  and  Navy  Journal.  To 
the  editor  of  that  paper  finally  wrote  Commodore  "William  N. 
Jeffers,  Chief  of  the  Kaval  Bureau  of  Ordnance,  one  of  the 
most  intelligent  and  capable  Bureau  officers  the  Kavy  has 
ever  known. 

There  is  no  doubt  but  that  at  present  we  are  completely  at  sea  on 
the  tor]3edo  question,  and  on  taking  charge  of  this  Bureau  mv  very 
fii-st  efforts  were  devoted  to  obtaining  some  practical  results.  The  pole 
toii^edo  has  been  fully  developed,  but  we  now  want  something  more. 
The  Lay  machine  requii-es  too  many  favorable  conditions.  The  White- 
head, once  launched,  is  like  a  blind  man  striking  out  with  a  club,  as 
likely  to  hit  friends  as  enemies.  Torpedo  warfare  is  not  yet  developed, 
and  cannot  be  studied  or  taught  as  a  system.  Experiment  is  the  only 
course  to  adopt,  and  I  intend  to  carry  on  a  full  course.  I  intend  going 
over  to  New  York  as  soon  as  the  weather  becomes  settled,  and  I  wish  to 
have  a  talk  with  Ericsson  about  his  torpedo,  and  arrange  for  experi- 
ments with  it ;  I  hope  also  to  have  some  amicable  understanding  with 
the  army,  and  that  we  will  not  devote  our  talents  to  demonstrating  how 
very  little  either  of  us  know  on  the  subject.* 

This  was  followed  by  a  visit  to  Ericsson  in  the  company 
of  the  recipient  of  this  letter,  who  seems  to  have  been  in- 
vited by  Commodore  JefiFers  to  accompany  him  somewhat  in 
the  character  of  a  body-guard,  the  Commodore  having  the  mis- 
taken impression  that  the  great  engineer  was  not  an  agreeable 
man  to  meet ;  an  impression  resulting  wholly  from  Ericsson's 
determination  to  protect  himself  against  miscellaneous  and  use- 
less visits.  The  visit  of  the  accomplished  naval  officer  resulted 
in  an  agreeable  acquaintance,  having  its  foundation  in  nmtual 
confidence  and   respect.      Commodore  Jeffers  was  a   man  of 

*  Letter  of  March  7,  1874,  to  William  C.  Church,  Editor  Army  and  Navy 
Journal,  New  York. 


THE   ART   OF   WAR   IN   ITS   INFANCY.  161 

sufficient  ability  to  be  willing  to  meet  Ericsson  on  his  own 
ground.  Having  confidence  in  himself,  he  did  not  feel  com- 
pelled to  resort  to  the  arts  by  which  lesser  men  seek  to  hide 
their  insignificance  behind  the  curtain  of  official  reserve,  and 
to  swell  their  own  piping  tones  by  sounding  them  through 
the  trumpet  of  high  station.  lie  was  not  one  of  those  who 
imagine  that  the  height  of  the  pedestal  determines  the  size  of 
the  man. 

Of  Commodore  Jeffers's  visit,  Ericsson  wrote  to  Adlers.- 
parre :  * 

Notwithstanding  my  attack  on  the  Navy  Department,  the  Secretary 
has  been  forced  to  make  the  first  move  in  effecting  a  reconciliation,  and 
accordingly  ordered  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Ordnance,  Commodore 
Jeffers,  to  call  on  me  last  Saturday.  The  meeting  was  of  a  most  friend- 
ly nature,  and  resulted  in  my  offering  the  tubular  cable  torpedo  for 
trial,  if  the  Government  would  provide  a  good  vessel  and  pay  the  cost 
of  a  powerful  air-compressing  machine,  the  one  I  employed  last  year 
having  in  the  meantime  been  disj^osed  of.  The  Commodore  at  once  au- 
thorized me  to  build  such  a  machine  to  suit  my  own  views,  and  did  not 
even  ask  to  see  my  plans.  Accordingly,  I  am  now  at  woi'k  constructing 
a  perfect  machine  for  supplying  air  and  operating  the  reel.  In  the 
meantime,  a  fine  new  vessel,  built  by  the  Government  at  Boston,  is 
being  fitted  up  for  trial,  and  will  be  ready  within  two  months.  Your 
humble  servant  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  fortunate  individuals  that 
ever  lived.  Without  having  made  any  aj^plication,  a  great  naval  power 
thus  asks  my  assistance  to  help  it  out  of  the  defenceless  condition  in 
which  it  finds  itself,  owing  to  the  want  of  sufiScient  iron-clads.  The 
intended  imposing  naval  display  at  Key  West  has  suddenly  disclosed  the 
unpleasant  fact  that  the  nation  possesses  no  ships  capable  of  meeting 
an  enemy,  and  that  our  great  Atlantic  cities  may  be  destroyed  at  any 
moment  by  foreign  iron-clads,  unless  we  can  meet  them  with  movable 
torpedoes.  Grant  and  Eobeson  now  at  last  comjjrehend  the  matter, 
hence  their  willingness  to  give  me  a  hearing. 

July  1,  1874,  a  few  months  after  the  interview  he  had 
held  with  Ericsson  at  the  latter's  house,  in  Beach  Street,  New 
York,  the  Commodore  wrote  officially,  saying : 

I  have  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  letter  of  July  1st,  enclosing 
diagrams  and  explanations  of  a  system  of  tactics  of  a  movable  torpedo 
(Tubular  Cable   System),  which  I  have  carefully  examined,   and  the 

*  April  10,  1874. 
Vol.  n.— U 


162  LIFE   OF   JOUX   ERICSSON. 

movements  described  are  perfectly  feasible.  I  fully  agree  with  you  that 
there  is  very  little  hope  of  successful  results  in  making  the  attack  from 
long  distances,  and  therefore  it  is  unnecessaiy  to  make  any  provision 
for  such  an  attack.  All  experience  shows  that  to  obtain  decisive  re- 
sults against  such  resisting  objects  as  ships,  it  is  necessary  to  seek 
close  quarters,  and  particularly  with  this  new  weajxtn,  as  yet  untried  in 
actual  warfare. 

February  17  and  Marcli  12,  1875,  Commodore  JefFers  re- 
ported that  a  model  of  Ericsson's  torpedo  which  be  had  re- 
ceived, "  worked  regularly  without  the  slightest  trouble,  and 
to  the  admiration  and  surprise  of  everyone  to  whom  I  have 
shown  it.  I  have  exhibited  it  to  other  chiefs  of  the  several 
Bureaus  and  other  naval  officers,  who  were  free  in  their  ex- 
pressions of  wonder  and  satisfaction  at  the  successful  manner 
in  which  it  operated.^' 

Commodore  Jeffres  placed  at  the  disposal  of  Ericsson  a 
smooth-bore  15-inch  naval  irun  with  its  carriacre,  mounted  on  a 
Xavy  Yard  scow.  "With  this,  a  series  of  experiments  were 
conducted  at  Sandy  Hook,  and  these  established  practically  the 
fact  that  an  elongated  15-inch  shell  forming  a  torpedo  projec- 
tile ten  feet  in  leno^th,  desiirned  to  carry  dvnamite  or  other 
high  explosive,  could  be  fired  in  any  desired  direction,  from 
an  ordinary  smooth-bore  srun,  usinir  a  small  char£;e  of  srun- 
powder  as  the  motive  force.  The  plan  embraced  a  revolving 
turret  for  protecting  and  directing  the  guns. 

This  turret  Ericsson  regarded  as  absolutely  indispensable, 
but  it  did  not  meet  with  the  approbation  of  Commodore 
Jeffers,  who  believed  that  a  suitable  carriage  mounted  on  a 
ship's  deck  would  answer  the  purpose.  "This  modification  of 
ray  system,"  said  Ericsson,  '*  involved  so  much  imperfection 
that  I  respectfully  declined  to  adopt  the  same.  A  change  of 
Administration  occurring  at  the  time,  the  experiments  at  Sandy 
Hook  were  discontinued.  This  abrupt  termination  induced  me 
at  once  to  elaborate  the  more  effective  and  less  expensive  plan 
of  blowing  up  iron-clad  shijis  by  means  of  submarine  guns  and 
projectiles,  the  immediate  result  of  my  labors  being  the  build- 
ing of  the  Destroyer.'''  * 

To  secure  his  title  to  originality  in  the  nse  of  powder,  in- 

*  Letter  to  lion.  W.  C.  WTiitney,  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  October  3,  1887. 


THE   ART   OF   WAR   IN   ITS   INFANCY.  163 

Btead  of  compressed  air,  for  propelling  high  explosives,  Ericsson 
published  some  account  of  his  experiments ;  but,  as  he  felt 
called  upon  to  explain  in  a  letter  to  an  officer  of  the  Navy 
some  years  later,  "  he  refrained  from  particulars  as  to  the 
flight  of  the  projectile  through  the  air,  and  its  behavior  on  en- 
tering the  water.  This  was  in  deference  to  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment and  the  opinion  of  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Ordnance, 
who  had  to  some  extent  committed  himself  in  favor  of  expel- 
ling torpedoes  from  decks  of  vessels."  The  results  were  not 
favorable  to  further  experiment. 

The  project  of  building  the  Destroyer  followed  as  the  direct 
"/.esult  of  the  encouragement  received  from  Commodore  Jeffers, 
who  was  a  full  convert  to  Ericsson's  views  except  in  matters  of 
detail. 

"With  the  approval  of  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Ord- 
nance, Ericsson  made  a  series  of  experiments  on  the  Hudson, 
the  result  of  which  he  reported  to  Jeffers,  saying : 


I  beg  to  inform  you  that  I  have  concluded  the  torpedo  experiments 
on  the  Hudson,  the  result  having  fully  realized  my  expectations.  Re- 
cent developments  in  submarine  attack,  especially  the  various  means 
suggested  and  partially  adopted  by  the  English  Admiralty,  in  order  to 
protect  their  large  iron-clad  ships  against  torpedo  attack,  have  con- 
vinced me  of  the  correctness  of  the  principles  involved  in  the  plan  sub- 
mitted to  Em^Deror  Napoleon  III.,  1854,  viz.,  that  of  employing  swift 
impregnable  sci'ew-propelled  vessels,  provided  with  means  of  projecting 
torpedoes  under  water  at  moderate  distances.  The  extraordinary  speed 
attained  by  first-rate  English  armored  ships,  and  the  apparent  impos- 
sibility of  building  small  vessels  of  equal  or  superior  speed,  capable 
of  resisting  modern  rifled  ordnance,  have  deten-ed  me  from  prosecut- 
ing my  original  plan.  But  having  recently  planned  a  vessel  on  a 
peculiar  cellular  system  (near  and  above  water-line),  in  which  all  vital 
parts  are  deeply  submerged — thereby  dispensing  with  other  armor  than 
that  requisite — to  overtake  first-class  armored  ships  no  longer  presents 
an  obstacle.  The  favorable  result  of  the  trial  of  the  wooden  torpedo, 
together  with  the  positive  determination  regarding  form,  induced  me, 
immediately  after  the  conclusion  of  the  experiments,  to  constnict  a 
machine  for  projecting  a  large  torpedo  under  water.  The  work  was 
pushed  with  such  vigor  that  all  was  ready  for  trial  by  the  end  of  last 
week,  the  trials  being  now  ended. 

A  patent  for  this  invention  has  jnst  been  granted  by  the  United 
States  Patent  Office  ;  but,  as  I  have  applied  for  a  patent  io.  England,  the 


164  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

American  patent  will  not  be  issued  until  after  the  publication  of  the 
English  grant. 

So  far,  the  problem  of  destroying  armored  ships  may  be  con- 
sidered as  practically  solved.  The  possibility  of  constructing  an  im- 
pregnable vessel /uster  than  the  British  iron-clads,  and  capable  of  with- 
standing their  tire,  remains  to  be  established.  This  I  am  prepared  to  do, 
no  financial  difficulty  standing  in  the  way  ;  but  it  would  be  very  desirable 
to  know  if  the  Navy  Department  could  purchase  such  a  vessel  at  actual 
cost,  or  for  a  certain  specific  amount,  when  finished  and  tested.  Please 
give  me  your  views  on  this  point.* 

On  December  17,  1877,  and  again  on  April  1,  1878,  Erics- 
son wrote  to  Commodore  Jeffers,  reporting  progress  with  this 
vessel,  named  by  him  the  Destroyer.  In  the  second  letter  he 
said  : 

The  English  appear  to  be  at  their  wit's  end  with  reference  to  torpedo 
warfare.  Notwithstanding  Lord  Beresford's  assertion,  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  that  the  Whitehead  torjiedo  is  perfection,  leaving  nothing 
further  to  be  desired,  the  Admiralty  have  been  experimenting  with  all 
sorts  of  torpedoes  and  submerged  rockets.  The  Laboratm-y  Torpedo 
(devoid,  it  appears,  of  the  intricate  motive  mechanism  of  Lord  Beres- 
ford's pet  weapon)  the  English  people  now  imagine  will  protect  their 
fleets  in  future,  since  it  is  cajjable  of  running  great  distances  at  fabu- 
lous rates.  But  no  way  has  yet  been  found  out  by  the  Admiralty  of 
making  the  wonderful  Laboratory  Torpedo  hit  a  vessel  whose  com- 
mander is  disinclined  to  remain  stationaiT  while  the  missile  is  approach- 
ing ;  nor  has  it  been  found  out  how  to  induce  a  current,  running  across 
the  path  of  the  torpedo,  not  to  interfere  with  its  course.  Consequently 
the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty  have  now  decided  to  build  torpedo  conduc- 
tors of  two  thousand  five  hundred  tons  burthen,  to  carry  their  wonderful 
chemical  torpedo  up  to  the  jjoint  intended  to  be  struck  ;  truly  a  sensi- 
ble i^lan.  In  the  meantime  let  us  show  that  we  possess  very  simple 
means  for  destroying  both  the  intended  huge  torpedo-carriages  and  the 
latest  iron-clads  supposed  to  be  invincible. 

In  reply  to  this  letter  Commodore  Jeffers  wrote  officially, 
saying:  "  I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  receiving  your  two  letters 
with  sketches  of  your  new  torpedo  system,  and  have  delayed  a 
reply  while  submitting  them  to  several  officers  of  judgment. 
The  remarkable  simplicity  of  the  arrangement  c(»niniends  it  to 
every  practical  man  as  compared  with  the  Whitehead  or  Lab- 

*  Letter  of  December  7,  1877. 


THE   ART   OF    WAR   IN   ITS   IINTANCY. 


165 


oratory,  which  I  take  to  be  a  reproduction  of  Sir  William  Con- 
greve's  water  rocket."  * 

Again  the  Commodore  wrote,  "  I  think  the  days  of  heavy 
iron-clads  and  monster  guns  are  numbered,  all  of  which  is  to 
our  advantage,  as  we  possess  none  of  either.  The  simplicity 
and  efficiency  of  your  torpedo,  as  compared  with  the  White- 
head, gives  us  the  power  of  using  a  charge  sufficient  to  insure 


Interior  of  the   Destroyer,    Looking  toward   the   Bow. 


the  destruction  of  an  opponent,  no  matter  where  he  is  struck ; 
and  the  sea-going  qualities  and  speed  of  the  Destroyer  will  en- 
able us  to  break  up  any  attempt  at  a  blockade."  f 

In  his  letter  of  April  Tth,  Commodore  Jeffers  had  suggested 
a  dry  tube  for  firing  the  torpedo  from  directly  ahead  to  abeam. 
In  reply  Ericsson  showed  the  impossibility  of  this  with  a  tor- 
pedo thirty  feet  long  and  a  vessel  with  beam  "  forward  of  the 

*  Letter  of  April  6,  1878. 

t  Letter  of  September  23,  1878. 


166  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

transverse  armor  plate,"  averaging  seven  feet.  Continuing,  be 
said  :  "  Permit  me  to  state  that  my  sole  object  of  building  the 
torpedo  vessel  has  been  that  of  demonstrating,  practically,  that 
iron-clad  ships  of  all  classes  may  be  destroyed  in  spite  of  the 
power  of  their  ordnance  and  thickness  of  armor.  I  therefore 
trust  that  you  will  approve  of  my  course  in  excluding  from 
the  Destroyer  all  contrivances  which  are  not  needed  to  carry 
out  the  scheme  of  blowing  up  vessels  by  means  of  a  projectile 
torpedo  caj)able  of  cutting  through  tempoi^ary  jprotections^  and 
discharged  in  a  direction  parallel  with  the  keel  at  so  short  a 
distance  that  it  cannot  miss  the  hody  attacked^ 

In  November,  1878,  Ericsson's  friend,  G.  Y.  Fox,  wrote  from 
Washington :  "  I  have  had  a  long  talk  with  Jeffers,  I  am  happy 
to  sav  that  he  is  very  much  impressed  with  the  idea  that  you 
have  adopted  to  attack  the  present  system  of  iron-clads,  and 
that  he  shares  my  confidence  in  its  complete  success.  I  am 
sure  that  your  invention  will  become  as  national  as  the  monitor." 

"  I  have  always  been  of  the  opinion,"  said  Commodore  Jef- 
fers, speaking  for  himself,  "  that  tliis  system  offers  greater 
promise  than  any  other  plan  of  offensive  torpedo  warfare,  from 
its  simplicity ;  and  when  all  the  details  have  been  worked  out, 
have  no  doubt  of  its  adoption  to  improve  torpedo  vessels.  I 
shall  be  glad  to  assist  in  an}''  way  in  my  power."  * 

Discouraged  by  later  experiences  at  Washington,  Ericsson 
wrote  to  Commodore  Jeffers,  July  20,  1880:  "The  apparent 
indifference  on  the  part  of  the  Government  relative  to  the 
Destroyer,  indisputably  the  most  powerful  means  yet  devised 
for  defending  our  harbors,  has  induced  me  to  adopt  a  course 
enabling  me  to  prosecute  the  great  scheme  by  private  means." 
Continuing  his  experiments,  he  exultingly  announced  to  his 
friends,  the  Delamater  Company,  eighteen  days  later:  "Iron- 
clads are  doomed.  Our  torpedo,  with  the  propelling  piston 
bolted  to  its  aft  end,  went  yesterday  275  feet  in  a  direct  course 
under  water  and  then  floated  to  the  surface.  The  torpedo  yes- 
terday was  not  fully  loaded,  hence  did  not  go  as  far  as  it  might. 
Enough  was  accomplished,  however,  to  show  that  we  can  sink 
an  enemy  without  ram  steam-launch  or  spar-torpedo  of  our 
navy.  All  these  devices  are  now  gone  to  the  dogs." 
*  Letter  of  May  29,  1879. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

EHr.CSSON'S  PLANS  FOR  HARBOR  DEFENCE. 

Naval  Approval  of  the  System  of  Subaquatie  Attack. — Opposition  of  the 
Bureau  of  Ordnance. — Ericsson's  Persistence. — President  Garfield 
and  General  Miles. — No  Coast  Defences  Needed. — How  to  Defend 
Our  Harbors. — England's  Critical  Position. — Unreliability  of  Tor- 
pedo-boats.— The  Admiralty  and  the  Destroyer. — Turrets  for  Land 
Defence. 

COMMODOEE  JEFFERS  was  relieved  from  the  Naval 
Bureau  of  Ordnance  July  1,  1881,  and  his  successor  in  of- 
fice was  not  favorably  impressed  with  the  Destroyer.  Contra- 
ry to  the  opinion  of  his  predecessor,  he  held  that  the  projectile 
of  the  submarine  gun  should  have  more  range,  ignoring  the 
fact  that  the  range  of  a  missile  fired  under  water  is  very  limit- 
ed, and  that,  aside  from  this,  for  longer  range  greater  velocity 
is  essentia],  and  that  the  necessary  light  projectile  would  be 
shattered  by  heavy  charges. 

A  naval  board,  having  Commodore  Selfridge  as  its  chair- 
man, reported  that  the  Ericsson  submarine  torpedo  "is  a  pro- 
jectile of  the  most  formidable  character  within  a  limited  range, 
and  within  that  range,  wliatever  further  experiments  may 
prove  such  to  be,  it  is  superior  to  any  known  form  of  torpedo." 
Admiral  Porter,  the  head  of  the  Navy,  held  the  torpedo  in 
similar  high  esteem,  and  recommended  that  one  be  discharged 
from  a  distance  of  200  feet,  as  at  that  distance  the  projectile 
could  not  miss  nor  the  enemy  escape.  He  interested  himself 
in  securing  from  Congress  an  appropriation  for  the  purchase 
of  the  Destroyer,  and  urged  that  Ericsson  keep  his  invention  a 
secret  from  foreigners.  In  one  of  his  annual  reports,  he  recom- 
mended that  twenty  steel  vessels  be  built  on  the  Ericsson  plan, 
with  quadruple  expansion  engines  to  secure  a  speed  of  thirty 


168  LIFE   OF  JOnX   ERICSSON-. 

miles  an  hour,  which  would  make  them  the  perfection  of  tor- 
pedo-boats. 

But  the  new  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Ordnance  was  not  sat- 
isfied with  these  opinions,  and  he  insisted  on  conditions  Erics- 
son found  it  impossible  to  comply  with.  Tlie  Destroyer  must 
not  only  be  more  thoroughly  tested,  but  the  test  must  be  made  at 
the  inventor's  expense,  and  at  sea,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the 
vessel  was  not  built  for  sea  service.  Her  guns  must  also  be  tried 
with  high  explosives.  In  vain  Ericsson  showed  that  this  would 
subject  him,  in  the  event  of  any  accident,  to  the  penalties  of 
manslaughter,  or  at  least  to  heavy  damages,  as  his  vessel  did  not 
hold  a  Government  commission.  He  had  long  been  in  the  very 
awkward  position  of  navigating  in  the  crowded  waters  of  iKew 
York  Harbor  a  vessel  having  no  legal  status,  and  had  had  to 
pay  one  heavy  bill  for  damages  resulting  from  a  collision.  It 
was  in  vain,  too,  that  he  showed  the  unfairness  of  requiring  him 
to  add  twenty  thousand  dollars  for  these  experiments  to  the 
hundred  thousand  dollars  already  expended  in  solving  a  prob- 
lem of  national  defence,  of  chief  interest  to  the  Government 
and  to  every  citizen  equally  with  the  inventor. 

"  My  object,"  he  said,  "  in  building  the  Destroyer  has  been 
simply  that  of  demonstrating  the  practicability  of  submarine 
artillery,  unquestionably  the  most  effective,  as  well  as  the 
cheapest,  device  for  protecting  the  seaports  of  the  Union 
against  iron-clad  ships.  I  do  not  seek  emoluments,  as  I  am 
financially  independent ;  but  I  am  anxious  to  benefit  the  great 
and  liberal  country  which  has  enabled  me  to  carry  out  impor- 
tant works  which  I  could  not  have  carried  out  on  a  monarchical 
soil.  I  am  also  anxious  to  silence  my  opponents  abroad,  who 
assert  that  the  worthlessness  of  the  Destroyer  is  proved  by  its 
being  rejected  by  the  United  States  Government."  • 

Mr.  C.  II.  Delamater  had  through  his  firm  furnished  one- 
half  of  the  money  to  build  the  Destroyer^  and  he  was  thor- 
oughly tired  of  the  long  delays  in  securing  its  adoption.  His 
interest  in  Ericsson  also  prompted  him  to  protest  against  his 
devoting  to  such  thankless  public  service  any  more  of  a  life 
now  fast  drawing  to  a  close,  for  Ericsson  was  an  octogenarian. 

•  Letters  to  Hon.  W.  E.  Chandler,  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  September  29  and 
30,  1884. 


Ericsson's  plans  for  harbor  defence.        169 

"My  old  and  dear  friendship,"  he  wrote,  "  prompts  me  to 
follow  what  I  have  said  with  humble  advice  to  abandon  the 
whole  subject — to  let  the  Destroyer  lie  as  she  is,  in  the  Xavy 
Yard  and  unnoticed,  and  to  devote  jour  energies  to  genial  and 
pleasant  themes  and  experiments.  As  your  friend — to  whom 
your  past  has  been  a  most  interesting  volume,  and  to  whom 
your  future  is  as  dear — I  would  gladly  see  you  devote  all  your 
fortune,  principal  and  interest,  and  combining  it  with  your 
life,  spread  it  over  twenty  years  to  be  gone  at  the  end  of  it — 
excepting  only  something  in  moderate  degree  for  those  only 
who  have  devoted  their  lives  to  yours,  and  ignoring  all  others 
whose  claims  would  be  only  those  of  sentiment  without  ser- 
vice." "^ 

But  Ericsson  was  not  to  be  persuaded,  and  continued  to  the 
end  of  his  life  to  interest  himself  in  the  Destroyer^  though  he  had 
very  little  faith  in  his  ability  to  secure  an  appropriation  for  it 
from  a  Congress  which  had  not  been  able,  in  forty  years,  to  find 
time  to  cancel  the  debt  incurred  in  connection  with  his  work 
upon  the  Princeton^  in  1S42.  He  twice  submitted  an  offer  to 
the  Kavy  Department  to  build  an  improved  Destroyer^  with  a 
guarantee  of  success,  relieving  the  Department  of  all  responsi- 
bility, but  these  offers  were  declined. 

The  patriotic  General  Xelson  A.  Miles,  of  the  army,  who 
was  deeply  solicitous  on  the  subject  of  the  inadequacy  of  our 
coast  defences,  warmly  interested  himself  to  secure  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Destroyer  by  the  Government.  "NYriting  to  Erics- 
son, June  9,  1SS3,  he  said  :  "  The  week  preceding  the  tragedy 
which  resulted  in  the  death  of  President  Garfield,  I  had  a  con- 
versation with  him  on  the  subject,  by  the  sea-side  at  Long 
Branch.  lie  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  matter,  and  said  that 
he  intended  to  give  it  personal  attention,  and  endeavor  to 
bring  the  Navy  up  to  its  proper  standard.  Of  course,  his 
death  prevented  the  realization  of  his  desire,  but  I  still  hope 
our  Government  will  appreciate  the  importance  of  your  life 
work  and  most  valuable  inventions,  and  that  you  may  be  duly 
rewarded  for  the  eminent  and  valuable  services  which  you  have 
rendered  the  nation." 

At  the  second  session  of  the  Forty -ninth  Congress,  a  bill 
*  Letter  of  November  23,  1882. 


170  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

was  introduced  to  appropriate  $2,000,000  for  the  Destroyer^ 
and  ten  enlarged  steel  vessels  of  the  same  type,  but  it  did  not 
become  a  law.  "  The  success  of  the  Destroyer^'^  wrote  Erics- 
son,* "  would  destroy  the  prospects  of  the  powerful  fortifica- 
tion and  gun  interest,  which  looks  forward  to  an  expenditure 
of  one  hundred  millions  within  a  few  years.  Then  we  are  op- 
posed by  the  iron-clad  ship  building  and  armor-plate  combina- 
tions; not  to  mention  torpedo-boat  builders,  submarine  boat 
projectors,  and  dynamite  gun  manufacturers,  all  against  us,  as 
their  plans  will  be  worthless  if  foreign  iron-clads  can  be  shat- 
tered and  our  harbor  defended  without  guns  and  fortifications, 
by  the  employment  of  the  simple  and  cheap  submarine  artil- 
lery system." 

In  other  letters  f  Ericsson  had  previous  to  this  expressed 
the  decided  opinion  "  that  this  country  requires  no  coast  de- 
fences. Small  states,  surrounded  by  powerful  neighbors,  bent 
on  landing  armies  on  their  coasts,  need  such  defences,  but  the 
United  States  needs  only  harbor  defences  to  prevent  an  enemy 
from  destroying  the  great  seaboard  cities.  Well-informed 
men  now  admit  that  no  fortification  could  prevent  the  Inflex- 
ible from  entering  our  harbor  and  burninor  Xew  York."  "For 
that  purpose,"  he  added,  "  nothing  has  yet  been  devised  that 
can  compare  with  the  Destroyer  system — submarine  artillery." 
After  a  thorough  study  of  the  subject,  Lieutenant  William  H. 
Jaques,  one  of  the  intelligent  and  well  informed  ofiicers  of 
the  Navy,  said  :  "  In  some  countries  where  the  torpedo-boat 
has  entered  as  a  permanent  element  of  defence,  the  great  value 
of  submarine  gunnery  is  conceded.  In  this  connection  it  can 
be  said  without  doubt,  that  the  Destroyer  represents  the  most 
advanced  experiment." 

Ericsson  believed  that  with  his  submarine  guns  of  large 
calibre  swung  at  their  sides,  the  monitors  could  be  made  ser- 
viceable for  harbor  defence,  their  lack  of  speed  not  preventing 
their  use  in  this  capacity.  In  a  letter  of  April  9, 1S80,  to  Com- 
modore Edward  Simpson,  U.S.N.,  he  said  : 

A  monitor,  however  powerfully  armed,  is  no  longer  capable  of  de. 
fending  the  harbor  of  New  York  against  an  Inflexible  or  Dandolo,  since 

•  Letter  to  Honorable  A.  H.  Cragin,  September  22,  1886. 
t  Letters  to  R.  B.  Forbes,  June  9  and  November  29,  1884. 


Ericsson's  plans  for  uarbor  defence.        171 

the  2,000-pouiid  projectiles  would  utterly  destroy  both  turret  and  pilot- 
house. The  stationary  toi^pedo,  with  its  delicate  gear,  may  be  easily  de- 
stroyed, while  ships  of  the  class  referred  to  can  pass  the  forts  with 
perfect  impunity.  How  then  are  we  to  protect  the  wealthy  city,  it  will 
be  asked.  Admii-al  Ammen  will  answer  :  "  Employ  that  infallible  repre- 
sentative of  '  naval  economy,'  the  Marine  Ram."  "  But,"  says  the  practi- 
cal engineer,  "  the  marine  ram  by  which  you  propose  to  assail  the  side 
armor  of  the  Lijiexible  near  the  water-line,  will  inevitably  be  destroyed 
on  encountering  the  resistance  of  her  great  mass,  while  no  serious  injury 
will  be  inflicted,  since  the  convex  form  of  the  bow-lines  of  the  marine  ram 
will  cause  its  entire  forward  part  to  bulge  outward  on  striking  the  mas- 
sive iron-clad.  The  constructor  of  the  steam  ram  will  then  probably  say : 
"  I  can  make  those  lines  perfectly  straight  and  prevent  bulging  outward." 
The  practical  man  will  then  object  that  if  the  motion  of  the  ram,  run- 
ning at  full  speed,  be  instantly  arrested,  the  entire  steam  machinery, 
boilers  and  all,  will  be  displaced,  the  steam  connections  broken,  and  the 
ships  company  scalded  to  death  by  the  escaping  steam.  It  may  be  de- 
monstrated that  no  engineering  expedient  can  avert  such  a  catastrophe. 

Again,  if  the  form  of  the  proposed  puny  steam  ram  be  modified  so 
that  it  can  strike  heloic  the  armor,  only  a  single  one  of  the  numerous 
water-tight  compartments  of  the  Infiexihle  would  be  pierced.  The 
steam  i-am,  if  constructed  as  shown  in  the  work  refen-ed  to,  would,  of 
course,  on  striking  go  to  the  bottom,  with  its  displaced  machinery  and 
broken  steam  connections.  It  may  be  asserted,  therefore,  that  the 
scheme  of  s,\nkmg  Inflexibles  and  Dandolos  by  "  economical "  steam  rams, 
will  prove  futile. 

The  Destroyer  system  on  the  other  hand,  based  on  the  plan  of  run- 
ning within  a  few  hundred  feet  of  the  assailant  and  then  projecting  a 
torpedo  containing  an  explosive  charge  capable  of  blowing  up  the  hull 
of  the  intruder,  will  probably  prove  an  infallible  mode  of  protecting 
our  Atlantic  cities  against  the  supposed  invincible  European  iron-clads. 

"  One  hundred  vessels  like  mj  original  Monitor  could  not 
now,"  lie  said  in  a  letter  to  Hon.  S.  S.  Cox,  M.C.,  in  1855, 
"  prevent  the  destruction  of  Xew  York  by  a  small  squadron  of 
first-class  iron-clad  ships." 

The  cost  of  one  turreted  vessel  like  the  Inflexible^  with  its 
armament,  is  $3,250,000.  For  this  sum  a  fleet  of  Destroyers 
could  be  built,  and  one-half  the  three  hundred  and  fifty  men 
composing  the  crew  of  an  Inflexible  would  be  suflicient  to 
man  them  all.  To  the  four  heavy  guns  of  the  larger  vessel 
they  would  oppose  thirty  submarine  cannon,  each  having  the 
huge  bulk  of  the  armor-clad  as  a  target  for  its  five  hundred 
pounds  of  some  high  explosive.     "Was  it  not  better,  Ericsson 


172  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

argued,  to  distribute  the  risks  of  war  among  thirty  vessels  than 
to  concentrate  them  in  a  single  huge  craft  {  and  could  there  be 
any  doubt  that  the  advantage  would  rest  witli  the  power  thus 
securing  the  superior  weight  of  metal — or  in  this  case,  of  ex- 
plosive ? 

On  June  23,  1875,  Ericsson  had  written  to  Commodore 
Jeffers,  saying :  "  After  thorough  consideration,  I  have  aban- 
doned the  idea  of  taking  out  a  patent  for  the  torpedo,  trusting 
to  the  liberality  of  the  Government  to  pay  for  the  invention  in 
case  its  success  should  warrant  its  adoption.  I  cannot  over- 
come my  reluctance  to  teach  the  whole  world  what  I  deem  it 
ray  paramount  duty  to  give  only  to  the  American  Kepublic, 
and  to  my  native  land.  Persons  looking  at  my  torpedo  think 
they  know  all  about  it.  Such,  however,  is  by  no  means  the 
case  ;  we  have  secrets  to  keep." 

This  referred  to  his  cable  torpedo.  His  experience  with 
the  Destroyer  later  on  convinced  him  that  his  only  hope  of  se- 
curing a  trial  of  the  invention  to  which  he  had  devoted  so 
much  labor  and  thought,  and  in  which  over  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  had  been  invested,  was  by  going  abroad.  lie  re- 
fused, however,  to  negotiate  with  Ilussia,  replying  to  an  inquiry 
from  the  Russian  Minister  that  he  had  not  authorized  anyone 
to  offer  the  Destroyer  for  sale.*  The  information  of  this  re- 
fusal was  at  once  telegraphed  to  King  Oscar  II.,  of  Sweden. 

In  a  memorandum  furnished  to  a  representative  of  the  Pe- 
ruvian Government,  Xovember  20,  1879,  when  Peru  and  Chili 
were  at  war,  Ericsson  said  : 

1.  Captain  Ericsson's  strong  desire  to  have  the  Destroyer  tested  in 
actual  icar  induced  him  to  oflFer  the  vessel  to  Peru.  Finding,  on  inquiry, 
that  the  United  States  Government  will  not  permit  this  engine  of  war, 
PS  it  is  termed,  to  leave  the  country  for  the  purpose  he  intended,  he 
now  withdraws  his  offer.  It  will  be  proper  to  mention  that  Captain 
Ericsson  has  received  a  bona  fide  offer  of  £10,0(X)  for  the  Destroyer,  by  a 
certain  European  government,  provided  he  will  guarantee  a  speed  of 
sixteen  nautical  miles  an  hour. 

Pern  adopted  the  Ericsson  plan  of  applying  the  submarine 
gnns  to  ordinary  ships  in  1879,  but,  owing  to  the  blockade,  a 
•  Telegram  to  the  Russian  Minister,  February  7.  1879. 


Ericsson's  plans  for  harbor  defence.        173 

specimen  gun  sent  to  a  Peruvian  port  had  to  be  carried  over  a 
roundabout  road  across  the  mountains.  It  was  not  received 
until  Admiral  Grau  was  dead,  the  Iluascar  taken,  and  the  Pe- 
ruvian vessels  it  was  intended  to  defend  against  the  Chilians  had 
been  destroyed,  with  one  exception,  by  those  energetic  people. 
The  gun  was  experimented  with  on  land  and  threw  a  projectile 
of  solid  3'ellow  pine,  19  feet  11  inches  long  and  weighing  1,040 
pounds,  with  a  nine-pound  charge  of  Peruvian  powder,  on  a 
straight  course,  450  metres,  or  nearly  1,400  feet.  A  second  shot 
went  800  metres,  and  a  third  900  metres,  or  over  half  a  mile. 


Method  of  Firing  the   Sub-marine   Gun  from  an  Ordinary  Vessel. 

Negotiations  for  the  sale  of  the  Destroyer  were  also  carried 
on  by  the  Chinese  authorities,  but  they  did  not  lead  to  any  re- 
sult. Finally,  Ericsson  resolved  to  offer  the  vessel  to  England. 
In  a  letter  to  a  family  connection,  Mr.  S.  B.  Browning,  he 
wrote : 

England's  critical  position  becomes  more  serious  with  every  day. 
The  fact  that  you  cannot  carry  on  the  puny  war  in  Egypt  without  de- 
priving the  country  of  its  only  trained  protectors,  the  Guards,  shows  a 
weakness  which  the  friends  of  the  great  nation  notice  with  dismay. 
Yet  the  Admiralty  does  not  comprehend  that  the  safety  of  the  country 
depends  wholly  on  the  power  of  the  navy  to  protect  the  seaports  against 
the  impending  coalition  of  maritime  nations.     Nothing,  absolutely  noth- 


174  LIFE   OF   JOHN    ERICSSON. 

ing,  is  now  being  done  to  defeat  such  a  coalition  by  adeqaate  naval  pro- 
tection. Admiral  Hobart's  contempt  for  the  locomotive  torpedo  is  a 
grave  mistake.  No  iron-clad  ship  in  existence  is  safe  if  surrounded  by 
a  fleet  of  these  puny  assailants,  unless  provided  with  torpedo  guard  that 
can  be  dropped  down  in  an  instant  and  raised  again,  after  the  destruc- 
tion or  departure  of  the  despised  craft.* 

Such  a  torpedo  guard  Ericsson  devised.  It  was  intended 
for  war  equipment  only  and,  having  been  previously  fitted, 
a  few  days  sufficed  for  its  application.  It  was  submitted  to 
the  Admiralty,  but  did  not  meet  with  favor.  "  England," 
Ericsson  said,  "  in  case  of  war  with  Ilussia  will,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  send  her  ships  to  blockade  the  liussian  ports  in  the 
Baltic.  Considering  the  overwhelming  number  and  excellent 
condition  of  the  torpedo-vessels  in  the  Gulf  of  Finland,  han- 
dled by  plucky  officers  and  well-trained  crews,  I  regard  the  de- 
struction of  the  English  blockading  ships  as  inevitable,  unless 
efficient  means  be  resorted  to  for  protecting  their  hulls  against 
Russian  Wliitehead  torpedoes." 

Brennan's  torpedo,  adopted  by  the  British  Government, 
he  described  as  "  a  mere  mechanical  toy,  in  some  respects  in- 
ferior to  Lay's  kindred,  frail,  and  complicated  device."  "  Ho- 
bart  Pasha's  favorable  opinion  of  stationary  torpedoes,  based  on 
his  experience  acquired  on  an  inland  sea  without  tides,  merits 
no  consideration,"  he  said,  "  in  a  country  on  whose  shores  there 
is  a  change  of  sea-level  exceeding  forty  feet  every  six  hours. 
It  would  be  a  fatal  blunder  to  act  upon  the  assumption  that 
English  seaports  can  be  defended  by  stationary  torpedoes,  in 
the  face  of  the  established  fact  that  such  frail  protection  can 
be  destroyed  or  removed  wherever  the  enemy  desires  to  enter." 

Warning  England  against  reliance  upon  torpedo-boats,  he 
further  said:  "A  single  modern  fast  cruiser,  provided  with 
nutnerous  breech-loaders  of  great  range,  could  sink  a  whole 
fleet  of  torpedo-boats  at  a  distance  which  would  render  the 
locomotive  torpedo  of  no  use  as  a  means  of  defence  against  the 
cruisers  bent  on  laying  a  seaport  under  contribution." 

Even  the  forts  and  guns  of  New  York  Harbor,  though  in- 
capable of  destroying  iron-clads,  could  "  send  all  the  tor- 
pedo-boats of  Europe  to  the  bottom  in  a  few  liours."     Seaports 

•  Letters  of  February  20  and  June  12,  1885. 


ERICSSON  S  PLANS   FOR  HARBOR  DEFENCE. 


175 


without  forts  could  be  protected  against  torpedo-boats  by  tem- 
porary eartliworks,  mounted  with  artillery  of  almost  any  kind. 
Such  works  could  be  constructed  in  a  few  days,  and  at  small 
cost,  as  was  demonstrated  during  the  late  American  war.  To 
the  argument  that  the  torpedo-boat  could  be  accompanied  by  a 
cruiser  carrying  heavy  ordnance,  he  replied  that  such  a  cruiser 
would  be  met  by  other  cruisers  with  equally  heavy  guns,  or  by 
a  vessel  such  as  the  Destroyer,  with  ordnance  which  could  send 
the  cruiser  to  the  bottom  by  a  single  shot  below  the  water-line. 
The  contest  then  would  be  between  these  vessels,  with  the  tor- 
pedo-boat serving  as  a  mere  spectator,  if  indeed  it  had  not 
already  been  sunk  by  the  hostile  cruiser  at  long  range.  The 
torpedo-boat  can  never  carry  heavy  ordnance,  and  will  "  never 


Longitudinal   Section  of  Destroyer,   Showing  Gun  and   Projectile. 


be  employed  against  seaports  of  any  importance.  Moreover, 
when  doing  constant  duty  during  war,  the  boasted  speed  of 
the  fast  torpedo-boats  would  soon  fall  below  the  speed  of  mod- 
ern cruisers.  The  engines  of  the  cruisers  moving  compara- 
tively slowly,  while  their  boilers  are  capacious  and  numerous, 
their  speed  can  be  maintained,  as  is  that  of  the  Atlantic  steam- 
ers, which  keep  up  their  extraordinary  speed  all  the  year 
round. 

A  British  officer.  Lieutenant  Gladstone,  R.N.,  sent  to  this 
country,  made  so  favorable  a  report  upon  the  Destroyer  that 
one  of  her  submarine  guns  and  four  projectiles  were  purchased 
by  the  Admiralty.  These  were  tried,  but  in  such  shallow 
water  that  they  struck  the  bottom,  ricochetted,  and  went  to  one 
side,  instead  of  going   straight  ahead,  as   heretofore   during 


176  LIFE  OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

trials  with  a  submarine  gun  suspended  under  a  scow  in  twenty 
feet  of  water.  Two  projectiles  were  tried  under  these  disad- 
vantages. A  third  was  next  discharged,  loaded  with  three  hun- 
dred and  twenty-one  pounds  of  gun-cotton,*  but  a  Woolwich 
detonator  had  been  substituted  for  the  percussion  lock  fur- 
nished with  it  and  the  charge  prematurely  ignited,  shattering 
the  powder  chamber  of  the  projectile  and  the  extension  of  the 
chase  of  the  gun.  The  gun  being  the  property  of  the  Admi- 
ralty, Ericsson  had  no  control  over  it.  He  immediately  offered 
to  furnish  a  new  gun  at  his  own  cost,  but  the  offer  was  not  ac- 
cepted, and  no  further  trials  took  place,  a  change  having  oc- 
curred in  the  Admiralty  meanwhile. 

The  inventor  was  able  to  console  himself  for  his  disappoint- 
ment at  the  result  of  the  trial  of  his  submarine  gun  in  England 
by  the  reflection  that  '•  the  Admiralty  lords  will  in  good  time 
adopt  the  new  system  of  destroying  an  adversary,  just  as  they 
adopted  the  screw  propeller  after  having  utterly  condemned 
the  same,  in  spite  of  my  successful  demonstration  in  the 
Thames  on  the  memorable  occasion  when,  by  means  of  the 
submerged  system  of  propulsion,  I  towed  the  gorgeous  Admi- 
ralty barge,  with  its  precious  freight  of  nautical  wisdom,  from 
Somerset  House  to  Blackwall  and  back,  at  the  rate  of  ten  knots, 
everything  working  to  a  charm."'  f 

The  idea  of  projecting  torpedoes  through  horizontal  tubes 
by  means  of  compressed  air,  included  in  the  scheme  laid  be- 
fore the  Emperor  iS'apoleon  in  1854,  has  been  generally 
adopted.  As  early  as  1874  it  was  in  use  by  the  Austrians  in 
the  gun-boats  Gemse  and  Seehund,  by  the  British  in  the  Oheron^ 
by  the  French  in  the  Catenate  by  the  Italians  in  the  Tripoli, 
and  by  the  Germans  in  the  Basilisk.  His  original  scheme 
of  naval  warfare,  as  presented  to  Napoleon  in  1854,  shows 
how  clearly  Ericsson  comprehended  the  conditions  that  were  to 
control  the  future  of  naval  warfare.  He  insisted  upon  short 
range,  and  though  the  development  of  naval  artillery,  including 
quick-firing  guns,  has  destroyed  the  force  of  some  of  his  argu- 
ments in  favor  of  "  close  quarters,"  the  necessity  for  it  still  re- 
mains.    His  labors  at  that  time,  as  he  stated  in  his  communi- 

*  On  the  beach,  at  Pembroke,  England,  September  30,  1886. 
f  Letter  to  S.  B.  Browning,  November  10,   188G. 


Ericsson's  plans  for  harbor  defence. 


177 


cation  to  the  Emperor,  were  directed  to  the  solution  of  tlie  fol- 
lowing problems : 

"  I.  A  self-moving  shot-proof  vessel."  This  was  developed 
in  the  Monitor. 

"  II.  An  instrument  capable  of  projecting  very  large  shells 
at  slow  velocities,  but  very  accurately,  in  accordance  with  de- 
termined rates."  This  took  shape  in  the  submarine  gun,  as 
subsequently  applied  to  the  Destroyer. 

"  III.  A  shell  adapted  to  such  a  gun."    This,  described  as  the 


Motive  Engine  of  the  Destroyer. 

1,000  indicated  horse-power.    Base,  8  feet  square,  total  height,  4  feet  8  inches. 
[Designed  by  John  Ericsson,  1878.] 


"  hydrostatic  javelin  "  in  the  communication  to  the  Emperor, 
was  the  torpedo  projectile  finally  adopted  for  the  Destroyer. 

It  required  the  pressure  of  war  to  overcome  naval  inertia 
sufficiently  to  secure  the  adoption  of  the  Monitor.,  and  it  will  no 
doubt  requii-e  a  similar  experience  to  develop  Ericsson's  ideas 
of  subaquatic  attack.  It  was  in  his  mind  during  our  Civil 
War,  but  necessity  did  not  call  for  its  production,  and  he  re- 
served it  for  a  greater  need.  His  declared  purpose  was  "  to 
protect  the  weak  by  killing  the  strong  aggressor." 
Vol.  n.— 13 


178  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

The  subject  of  adapting  the  monitor  turret  to  land  de- 
fences was  considered  by  Ericsson  during  the  closing  day 
of  the  American  Civil  War.  On  March  11,  1865,  Brevet 
Major-General  J.  G.  Barnard,  "  Chief  Engineer  Armies  in 
Virginia,"  wrote  to  him,  saying,  "I  have  long  had  it  in  mind 
to  consult  you  concerning  the  practicability  of  mounting  15- 
inch  guns  for  land  batteries  in  turrets."'  General  Barnard  then 
unfolded  his  plan  for  building  casements  of  masonry  with  iron 
turrets  mounted  upon  them,  and  asked  Ericsson  for  an  opinion 
concerning  these.  In  reply  he  said  :  "  Your  plan  of  employing 
wrought-iron  turrets  mounting  15-inch  guns,  for  land  batteries, 
is  unquestionably  superior  to  any  defensive  system  yet  devised. 
.  .  .  I  shall  be  happy  to  take  the  blacksmith's  part  in  carry- 
ing out  your  desirable  plan  whenever  you  command  me." 

A  discussion  followed  as  to  the  comparative  merits  of  the 
turret  system  and  the  arrangement  of  shields  with  embrasures 
adopted  in  Kussia,  General  Barnard,  in  asking  Ericsson's  opin- 
ion, saying:  ''Tour  great  experience  in  these  matters  would 
be  almost  indispensable  in  arranging  details  and  machinery." 
Ericsson  furnished  a  demonstration  of  the  fact  that  the  energy 
of  a  20-inch  solid  shot  was  more  than  sufficient  to  knock  over 
the  Kussian  superstructure,  and  that  of  the  15-inch  shell  to  de- 
stroy it  if  planted  in  the  right  place.  "  Its  imperfections  in 
principle  and  detail,"  he  said,  "  as  compared  with  the  turret 
system,  are  palpable  and  almost  innumerable." 

The  judgment  of  Ericsson  and  General  Baraard  in  this  mat- 
ter has  been  fully  approved  by  the  subsequent  adoption  of  the 
system  of  steel  turrets  for  land  defence.  Ericsson  furnished  a 
design  for  land  turrets  for  the  defence  of  Sweden.  These  were 
very  complete,  and  he  found  use  for  them  a  little  later  on,  when 
in  August,  ISTl,  he  was  called  upon  to  furnish  a  scheme  for 
defending  tlie  Dardanelles  with  rotating  turrets.  The  plans 
submitted  to  the  Turks  included  every  detail  of  specifications  for 
"  a  first-class  coast-defence  turret  on  Ericsson's  system,  arranged 
for  guns  firing  projectiles  weighing  one  thousand  pounds.''  The 
turrets  were  to  cost,  complete,  ready  for  shipment,  so  that  they 
could  be  set  up  and  the  plating  put  in  place  in  Turkey,  $225.- 
000  each,  including  two  gun-carriages,  two  port-stoppers,  and 
a  pair  of  steam-engines. 


Ericsson's  plans  for  harbor  defence.        179 

Ericsson  was  twice  called  upon  to  give  his  opinion  of  the 
best  means  of  defending  the  harbor  of  Xew  York.  In  March, 
1863,  the  Harbor  Defence  Commission,  presided  over  by 
Mayor  Opdyke,  asked  his  advice.  There  was  no  time  for 
preparation,  as  a  foreign  attack  seemed  to  threaten,  and  it  needed 
no  demonstration  at  that  time,  as  Ericsson  said,  "  to  prove  that, 
however  perfectly  our  forts  might  be  mounted  and  manned,  the 
hostile  fleet  of  armor-clads  would  approach  the  city  unscathed. 
As  the  East  and  Xorth  Rivers  divide  the  island  into  two  easy 
ranges,  the  enemy's  shells  might  convert  the  magnificent  me- 
tropolis of  tlie  western  world  into  a  heap  of  smoking  ruins  in 
a  single  day." 

In  default  of  a  sufficient  number  of  monitors  to  defend  the 
city,  he  proposed  to  seal  up  the  harbor  by  means  of  an  impassa- 
ble, impregnable  barrier.  He  estimated  that  five  thousand  tons 
of  wrought  iron,  and  one  million  cubic  feet  of  timber,  would 
suffice  to  close  the  Xarrows.  Such  a  barrier  could  provide  for 
a  free  passage  of  vessels,  the  operation  of  closing  it  occupying 
only  a  few  hours,  and  it  could  be  blown  up  by  the  military  en- 
gineers if  taken  possession  of.  '"  Fort  Lafayette,"  he  said,  "  is 
fortunately  situated  to  prevent,  by  its  powerful  guns,  such  an 
attempt,  and  the  obstructions  would  compel  them  to  remain 
under  fire.  These  obstructions  could  be  completed  within  four 
months,  and  there  was  no  time  to  be  lost.  For,  unless  the 
English  Government  promptly  puts  a  stop  to  the  completion 
of  the  numerous  piratical  vessels  now  being  built  in  the  sev- 
eral ports  of  the  United  Kingdom,  the  ship-owners  of  the 
United  States,  to  save  their  property  from  entire  destruction, 
must  withdraw  their  vessels  from  every  sea — a  humiliation 
which  the  Union  cannot  submit  to." 

Xearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  later,  Ericsson  returned  to 
the  subject  in  a  letter  addressed  to  the  President  and  members 
of  the  Xew  York  Chamber  of  Commerce.*  With  this  he  sent 
a  chart  of  the  Bay  of  Xew  York,  prepared  for  the  purpose  of 
showing  what  is  needed  for  its  defence.  With  reference  to 
this,  he  said  :  "  The  Hue  litres,  drawn  from  Forts  Tompkins, 
Hamilton,  and  the  forts  at  Sandy  Hook  to  the  centre  of  the 
enemy's  fleet,  near  Coney  Island,  show  that  unless  the  guns  of 
Letter  of  January  13,  1887. 


180  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

said  forts  are  capable  of  destroying  twenty-inch  thick  armor  at 
ranges  varying  from  six  to  seven  miles,  the  attacking  ships  can 
accomplish  at  their  leisure  the  destruction  of  your  great  city." 

Monitor  turrets  mounted  on  land,  with  Destroyers  floating 
on  the  water,  would,  as  Ericsson  believed,  furnish  the  cheapest 
as  well  as  the  most  complete  system  of  defence  possible.  For 
two  millions  of  dollars,  he  offered  to  build  ten  Destroyers  with- 
in twelve  months,  armed  with  submarine  guns  of  sixteen-inch 
calibre,  and  protected  by  inclined  breast-armor  of  steel  plates, 
capable  of  resisting  the  projectiles  fired  from  one  hundred-ton 
guns.  To  attempt  to  defend  every  point  at  which  an  enemy 
might  glide  along  a  long  coast  line,  if  not  practically  impossible, 
at  least  involved  a  heavy  expenditure.  This  he  believed  might 
be  saved  by  the  adoption  of  such  a  system  of  movable  defence 
as  he  had  long  before  proposed,  and  had  advocated  from  the  time 
when  the  floating  turret  made  its  debut  in  Hampton  Roads. 
"The  impoitant  feature,"  he  wrote,  "of  the  monitor  turret, 
that  it  offers  absolute  protection  to  guns  and  gunners,  at  the 
same  time  subjecting  an  approaching  enemy  to  the  annoyance 
of  being  at  every  instant  in  the  line  of  fire,  is  all-sufficient  to 
recommend  the  turret  system  in  preference  to  all  others  involv- 
ing embrasures  and  a  combination  of  iron  and  masonry.  Let 
us  bear  in  mind  that  a  monitor  turret,  which  requires  only  a 
raft  for  foundation,  may  be  erected  in  any  locality,  at  small 
cost." 

Ericsson  was  always  a  disbeliever  in  large  vessels  for  home 
defence.  His  attention  was  first  directed  to  the  subject  prac- 
tically in  183S,  and  five  years  later  he  proposed  to  defend  the 
American  coasts  by  gunboats  small  enough  to  be  put  on  cars  and 
transported  Mherever  needed.  "  How  different  the  American 
conflict  would  have  been  from  the  start,"  he  said  in  a  letter  writ- 
ten soon  after  its  close,*  "  if  the  Kepublic  had  possessed  the  fifty 
gunboats  which  I  proposed  twenty-five  years  ago.  A  thousand 
millions  of  money  could  have  been  saved  and  lives  numbered 
by  tens  of  thousands.  But,  as  a  cool  head  observed  at  the 
time,  the  idea  of  putting  on  a  railway  fifty  gunboats  demand- 
ing almost  no  outlay  to  keep  in  repair,  ready  to  be  sent  into 
the  water  at  the  first  sound  of  the  war  trumpet,  is  too  simple 
*  Letter  to  Commodore  Adlersparre,  November  6,  1868. 


ekicsson's  plans  foe  harbor  defence.        181 

and  common-sense  sort  of  an  idea  to  be  adopted  by  Congress. 
Many  similar  observations,"  he  adds,  "  were  made  at  the  time 
by  my  friends," 

On  April  27,  1S87,  Ericsson  wrote  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
Kavy,  Mr.  Whitney,  stating  that  he  had  just  completed  the 
plan  of  a  harbor  defence  vessel  of  the  Destroyer  type,  24  feet 
beam,  13  feet  deep,  carrying  a  protecting  belt  of  steel  armor 
3  inches  thick  and  30  inches  deep,  extending  around  the  outer 
hull.  This  armor,  backed  by  oak  planking  3^  inches  thick, 
was  sufficient  protection  against  the  fire  of  machine-guns,  and 
the  vessel,  when  trimmed  for  conflict,  would  be  nearly  sub- 
merged. The  portion  of  the  cabin  projecting  Z\  feet  above  the 
main  deck  was  similarly  protected.  The  breast  armor  for  pro- 
tection against  heavy  guns  in  fighting  bows  on,  consisted  of  in- 
clined solid  compound  steel  plates  30  inches  thick,  backed  by 
6  feet  of  oak  timber.  This  statement  was  accompanied  by  an 
offer  to  build  such  a  vessel  for  the  sum  of  $275,000. 

The  steel  cruisers,  built  by  the  Xavy  Department  during 
Mr.  Whitney's  administration,  Ericsson  unsparingly  condemned. 
The  Secretary  having  expressed  a  wish  to  converse  with  him 
on  the  subject  of  the  IS^avy,  he  wrote,  Xovember  4,  1886,  show- 
ing that  these  vessels  were  useless  for  war  purposes  as  their 
boilers  were  wholly  unprotected.  They  should  have  been 
placed  below  the  water-line  and  out  of  reach  of  the  enemy's 
fire.  He  sent  a  diagram  to  show  how  shot,  penetrating  the  thin 
hull  and  the  frail  1^  inch  "  protecting  "  deck,  would  destroy 
the  high-pressure  boilers,  allowing  the  steam  to  instantly  fill 
the  boiler-room  and  scald  the  firemen  to  death.  Low  boilers 
of  the  torpedo  type,  besides  being  out  of  reach  of  an  enemy's 
fire,  would  give  more  room  for  coal  and  secure  protection  for 
the  boilers  by  a  mass  of  coal  sixteen  feet  thick  on  each  side  of 
the  boat. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  STEAM  ENGINEERING. 

Improvements  in  Steam  Machinery. — Changes  in  Methods. —  Ericsson 
and  his  Critics. ^His  Advanced  Ideas. — Difficulties  with  which  he 
Contended. — Competitive  Trials  between  Engines. — The  Mada- 
waska  and  Wampanoag  Controversy. — The  Expansion  Engine. 

ERICSSON'S  failure  to  accomplish  his  purpose  of  substi- 
tuting hot  air  for  steam,  may  perhaps  explain  the  fact 
that  he  has  received  less  credit  than  was  his  due  for  his  constant 
contributions  to  the  improvement  of  steam  machinery.  Of 
the  inventions,  or  engineering  devices,  included  in  his  list  of 
over  one  hundred  prepai-ed  in  1867,  nearly  one-half  are  im- 
provements in  the  application  of  steam-power.  Nor  does  this 
by  any  means  show  all  that  he  accomplished,  for,  up  to  the  end 
of  1883,  he  had  planned  and  constructed  more  than  one  thou- 
sand different  models  and  machines. 

The  changes  in  steam  machinery,  during  the  period  of 
Ericsson's  active  labors,  were  so  rapid,  that  again  and  again  was 
it  found  necessary  to  sell  nearly  new  vessels  at  less  than  one- 
half  of  their  original  cost,  and  to  replace  them  with  others  fitted 
with  more  perfect  machinery.  The  number  of  hands  employed 
for  each  one  thousand  tons  capacity  of  British  steam  vessels  was 
reduced  forty  per  cent,  by  economical  changes  adopted  during 
the  fifteen  years  succeeding  1870.  The  expenditures  of  coal 
had  been  so  lessened  meanwhile,  that  it  was  possible  to  carry 
2,200  tons  of  freight  with  800  tons  of  coal,  where  it  was  before 
only  possible  to  carry  800  tons  of  freight  with  2,200  tons  of 
coal.  Sir  Lyon  Playfair  estimated  that  at  the  end  of  this 
period  "a  small  cake  of  coal,  which  would  pass  through  a  ring 
the  size  of  a  shilling,  when  burned  in  the  compound  engine  of 
a  modern  steamboat,  would  drive  a  ton  of  food  and  its  pro- 
portion of  the  ship  two  miles  on  its  way  from  a  foreign  port." 


CONTRIBUTIONS   TO   STEAM    ENGINEERING.  183 

So  many  have  contributed  to  this  result  that  it  is  impossible 
distinctly  to  define  the  services  of  any  one  man.  The  advance 
has  certainly  been  along  the  line  of  Ericsson's  studies,  and  his 
labors  had  an  important  influence  upon  this  progress.  In  the 
employment  of  artificial  draught,  of  the  surface  condenser,  the 
hydraulic  reversing  gear  ;  in  his  devices  for  heating  the  feed- 
water  and  superheating  steam,  and  in  his  use  of  the  com- 
pound principle  and  twin  screws,  he  made  at  a  very  early  date 
an  intelligent  application  of  the  ideas  involved  in  the  improve- 
ment of  steam  navigation.  It  is  only  within  recent  years  that 
those  who  travel  upon  the  waters  have  reaped  the  full  benefit 
of  these  early  labors  of  Ericsson  and  others.  So  late  as  1868, 
Vice  Admiral  Sir  Edward  Belcher,  K.C.B.,  in  an  address  be- 
fore the  Institute  of  N^aval  Architects,  asserted  that  at  that  date 
there  had  been  no  increase  of  speed  over  that  attained  at  the 
opening  of  the  century  with  masts  and  sails. 

The  progress  of  improvement  in  government  vessels  has 
been  much  less  rapid  than  in  the  mercantile  marine,  and  that 
it  has  not  lagged  still  farther  behind  is  due  in  large  measure  to 
John  Ericsson.  His  labors  in  connection  with  screw  propul- 
sion ;  for  the  simplification  of  marine  machinery,  and  for  se- 
curing its  protection  by  placing  it  below  the  water-line  and 
surrounding  it  with  coal,  unquestionably  revolutionized  war- 
fare, and  made  the  use  of  steam  possible. 

If  it  be  contended  that  Ericsson  might  have  accomplished 
more  had  he  been  less  aggressive,  it  should  be  remembered 
that  conciliation  means  compromise,  and  that  radical  changes 
do  not  admit  of  compromise.  As  it  was,  he  truthfully  de- 
scribed himself,  in  a  letter  to  an  intimate  friend  written  thir- 
teen years  before  his  death,  as  "  the  person  who  has  done  more 
to  promote  marine  engineering,  mechanical  motors,  imple- 
ments of  naval  warfare,  etc.,  than  any  other  ten  persons  to- 
gether during  the  last  third  of  the  lifetime  of  the  American 
Republic."  Opposition  is  the  inevitable  accompaniment  of  pro- 
gress. Ericsson  labored  in  departments  of  mechanical  change 
where  this  was  most  sure  to  assail  him.  Inventive  progress,  dur- 
ing the  three-quarters  of  a  century  covered  by  his  career  as  an 
engineer,  was  continually  opposed  by  ideas  originating  in  meth- 
ods continuing  substantially  unchanged  since  Adam  delved  and 


184  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

Eve  span,  and  down  to  the  commencement  of  the  present  brief 
era  of  mechanical  achievement.  Ericsson  not  only  had  this 
opposition  to  overcome,  but  he  contended  against  ingrained 
professional  prejudices,  formulated  in  "  customs  of  the  service," 
and  established  in  the  traditions  of  a  class  the  most  thoroughly 
organized  for  resistance  to  innovation.  What  engineering  and 
mechanical  science  have  done  for  the  art  of  war,  has  been  done 
at  the  cost  of  abdication  by  purely  military  men  of  something  of 
their  high  prerogative  of  command.  Thus  Ericsson  represented 
to  them  the  idea  of  substituting  engineering  talent  for  fighting 
ability ;  the  transfer  to  others  of  some  of  the  functions  of  war 
heretofore  monopolized  by  the  admirals,  the  field-marshals,  and 
the  major-generals.  It  is  not  in  human  nature  for  the  van- 
quished to  crown  the  victor  with  laurels,  and  the  class  who 
really  owe  the  most  to  the  man  who  has  conquered  them  on  the 
field  of  prejudice  were  naturally  slow  to  accord  him  honor. 

The  chief  of  lessons  to  be  learned  by  our  land  forces  during 
our  great  Civil  War,  preliminary  to  victory,  was  the  lesson  of 
self-sacrifice  and  disregard  of  personal  comfort.  The  ragged 
battalions  of  Stonewall  Jackson,  living  upon  the  handfuls  of 
corn  plucked  by  the  wayside,  were  alike  the  terror  of,  and  an 
example  for,  the  pampered  soldiers  from  the  Korth  who,  in  the 
early  days  of  the  war,  sought  to  carry  the  comforts  of  civiliza- 
tion into  the  field.  If  in  the  end  they  learned  their  lesson 
thoroughly,  they  learned  it  most  unwillingly,  and  only  at  the 
cost  of  great  sacrifices  in  pride,  in  blood  and  treasure.  It  was 
Ericsson's  mission  to  teach  this  lesson  of  simplicity  in  personal 
equipment  to  our  marine  forces,  and  the  result  upon  his  per- 
sonal popularity  among  them  was  inevitable.  It  was  only 
under  the  strain  and  stress  of  war  that  the  value  and  signifi- 
cance of  his  labors  were  appreciated. 

Ericsson  defied  the  experts,  matured  his  plans,  applied  them 
aa  opportunity  offered,  and  after  a  prolonged  contest  compelled 
their  general  acceptance.  The  struggle  was  an  exhausting  one, 
and  he  bore  the  scars  of  it  to  his  grave.  "  The  bitter  and  un- 
just remarks  of  the  editor  of  The  Engineer^''  he  once  said,  "  is 
only  a  repetition  of  what  I  have  experienced  through  life,  simply 
from  the  fact  that  in  my  profession  I  know  more  than  most 
other  people.     Kot  one  in  a  hundred  of  those  critics  who  have 


CONTRIBUTIONS  TO   STEAM  ENGINEERING.  185 

assailed  me,  and  by  their  injustice  rendered  a  life  otherwise 
fortunate,  often  very  unpleasant,  would  have  done  so  had  their 
experience  and  knowledge  not  been  inferior  to  mine.  It  is  my 
consolation,  however,  to  feel  that  those  only  who  do  not  know 
me  accuse  me  of  ignorance  in  my  profession,  and  that  those 
who  know  me  best  have  least  to  say  against  me."  * 

It  was  by  studying  simplicity  and  compactness  of  construc- 
tion that  Ericsson  was  able  to  make  the  most  effective  applica- 
tion of  the  steam-engine  to  naval  vessels.  His  engines,  from 
those  applied  to  the  little  tug  Stockton,  1S39,  to  those  designed 
twenty-three  years  later  to  furnish  4,500  horse-power  to  the 
large  Dictator,  "  had  one  feature  in  common  " — bringing  the 
power  of  two  engines  to  bear  at  right  angles  upon  a  common 
crank-pin.  Watt  suggested  the  idea  of  a  piston  vibrating  within 
a  semi-cylinder ;  Ericsson  developed  it  most  successfully  in  the 
Princeton,  and  applied  it  in  a  modified  form  to  his  steamers, 
Edith  and  Massachusetts.  "When,  in  1S59,  the  United  States 
Navy  Department  sought  for  the  best  screw  propeller  engine, 
Ericsson  presented  a  modification  of  his  semi-cylinder  engine, 
in  the  form  of  a  single  cylinder  divided  midway  by  a  steam- 
tight  partition,  so  as  to  form  two  cylinders,  in  each  of  which 
moved  a  piston,  the  two  pistons  working  in  opposite  directions, 
but  connected  with  the  same  crank  on  the  propeller  shaft  by 
levers,  rock  shafts,  and  connecting  rods. 

In  1S66  (April  20th),  the  London  Engineer  said  of  this 
engine  :  "  It  has  been  almost  universally  applied  to  the  late 
vessels  of  war  in  the  States,  and  also  in  the  mercantile  navy  of 
that  country.  There  is  not  a  single  American  monitor  Avith- 
out  an  engine  of  this  kind,  and  all  the  Swedish  monitors  are 
engined  on  the  same  plan."  In  the  engines  of  the  Dictator  the 
cylinders  were  placed  vertically  side  by  side. 

Their  designer  has  left  on  record,  in  his  volume  "  Con- 
tributions to  the  Centennial  Exhibition,"  a  technical  descrip- 
tion of  these  engines,  as  well  as  a  defence  of  them  against  ad- 
verse criticism.  "  From  the  Monitor  to  the  Monadnocli^''  said 
Ericsson,  in  a  letter  to  Bennett  Woodcroft,  May  15, 1866,  "not 
in  a  single  instance  have  these  engines  heated  or  been  out  of 
repair  during  the  war.  In  fact,  their  success  has  been  unprece- 
*  The  London  Engineer,  March  21,  1890,  p.  234. 


186  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

dented.  The  Dictatoi^s  engines,  which  have  ujprighl  cylinders, 
troubled  us  for  some  time,  but  were  finally  made  to  work  per- 
fectly cool." 

Tliese  engines  are  to  be  judged  by  their  time.  They  were 
not  intended  to  attain  the  high  economy  possible  with  super- 
heated steam,  high  expansion,  and  surface  condensation,  but 
only  to  work  with  certainty  with  the  ordinary  jet  condensers, 
ordinary  steam,  and  ordinary  expansion. 

A  most  favorable  report  was  made  of  the  Ericsson  engines 
upon  the  Penguin,  a  gunboat  purchased  by  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment at  the  outbreak  of  the  civil  war,  early  in  1S61.  At  the 
end  of  eleven  months  Mr,  Delamater  reported  that  she  had 
been  under  steam  every  day  of  that  time,  seven  days  excepted, 
and  had  not  been  stopped  once  on  account  of  derangement, 
nor  had  she  had  a  hot  journal,  and  was  in  complete  condition 
at  the  end  of  the  eleven  months,  although  the  engines  had 
been  in  use  over  three  years. 

"  I  have  never  failed,"  Ericsson  said,  in  1S54,  "to  carry  en- 
gineers with  me  when  we  have  been  confronted.  Nor  is  there, 
to  my  knowledge,  an  adverse  engineering  report  printed  or 
written  against  me — I  mean,  of  a  formal  character.  Some  few 
private  letters  and  sundry  stabs  in  the  dark  are  all  I  know  of. 
"What  was  the  result  of  my  bold  start  with  Collins,  when  I  ad- 
vised and  he  agreed  to  use  the  oscillating  engine  ?  '  May  I  sub- 
mit your  plans  to  practical  engineers?'  was  the  query.  '  Cer- 
tainly,' said  I,  '  provided  I  have  the  privilege  of  making  my  own 
representations.'  Now,  Morgan  and  Secor  happened  to  be  my 
worst  opponents  at  the  time,  and  they  had  a  man  of  the  name 
of  Gorga,  the  great  genius  of  their  establishment,  who  it  was 
supposed  would  knock  me  into  pie.  "Well,  the  meeting  was 
arranged  ;  cold  and  incredulous  faces  surrounded  my  draw- 
ing-table. The  explanation  commenced ;  the  cold  faces  soon 
warmed,  and  at  the  conclusion  of  my  lecture,  Mr.  Gorga  not 
only  agreed  to  my  several  propositions,  but  he  saw  a  number 
of  advantages  I  had  omitted  to  state.  But  so  it  has  always 
been.  I  never  yet  failed  to  carry  my  point.  Give  me  only  the 
chance  of  a  reply,  and  I  will  carry  any  of  my  plans  with  any 
board  of  engineers.  Truth  is  mighty,  and  will  prevail."  * 
•  Letter  to  John  O.  Sargent,  May  6,  1854. 


CONTRIBUTIONS   TO   STEAM   ENGINEERING.  187 

In  1864,  Mr.  Delamater  wrote  :  "  I  am  most  anxious  to 
awaken  your  attention  to  the  fact,  that  in  Europe  much  atten- 
tion is  now  directed  to  the  subject  of  superheating,  and  much 
progress  has  been  made.  I  have  been  satisfied,  by  what  I  have 
seen  and  by  what  I  have  lieard  from  you,  that  you,  for  years, 
have  been  fully  aware  of  what  may  be  done  and  how  to  do  it, 
and  I  trust  to  see  you  before  the  world  as  you  are  before  me — 
always  in  the  van." 

Mr.  Isherwood  improved  the  occasion  of  the  issue  of  a  vol- 
ume on  "  Experimental  Researches  on  Steam  Engineering,"  to 
subject  Ericsson's  engines  to  sharp  criticism,  and  the  Xavy  De- 
partment resolved  to  give  Ericsson  and  Isherwood  the  oppor- 
tunity to  build  rival  engines  ;  these  engines  to  be  tried  in  com- 
petition on  vessels  otherwise  precisely  alike.  In  spite  of  the 
fact  that  he  was  greatly  at  a  disadvantage  in  competing  with  a 
head  of  the  Bureau  controlling  the  contest,  Ericsson  accepted 
the  challenge. 

A  contract  for  building  the  engines  of  the  vessel  assigned 
to  him,  the  MadawasJca,  was  signed  by  Ericsson  on  Decem- 
ber 17,  1863.  The  rival  ship  was  the  Wamj)cmoag.  The 
Madaivaska,  subsequently  known  as  the  Tennessee,  was  not 
launched  until  July  8,  1865.  Ericsson,  with  his  usual  energy, 
pushed  his  work  ahead  so  fast  that  the  Madaioaslca  was  ready 
long  before  the  'SVamjpanoag ,  and  he  lost  the  opportunity  he 
coveted  of  testing  them  together.  The  contract  price  for  his 
engines  was  $700,000,  and  they  cost  him  and  his  associates 
$940,000.  As  one-sixth  of  the  price  was  to  be  reserved  until 
after  their  trial  and  acceptance,  a  further  burden  of  over 
$100,000  was  added  to  his  load.  To  Mr.  John  A.  Griswold 
he  wrote,  September  6,  1866,  saying: 

"  In  the  meantime  the  duns  are  at  my  door  and  must 
be  got  rid  of.  Strange  to  say,  although  I  have  constructed 
hundreds  of  engines  and  other  machinery  of  novel  and  ex- 
perimental character  for  thirty  years,  I  now  for  the  first  time 
find  myself  a  dunned  individual.  As  I  cannot  stand  it  any 
longer,  I  have  raised  $35,000  by  selling  stock.  This  amount 
I  am  ready  to  give  checks  for,  provided  you  will  yourself 
furnish  $15,000,  and  Mr.  Winslow  an  equal  amount.  This 
being  paid  to   our  creditors,  will   leave   a   moderate   balance 


188  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

which  the  parties  must  agree  to  wait  for  until  Congress  grants 
relief.'' 

He  estimated  that  $150,000  had  been  lost  on  this  contract, 
by  pushing  work  with  gold  at  250  when  other  contractors  did 
nothing,  and  he  complained  bitterlv  of  the  unjust  conditions 
to  which  he  was  subjected  by  the  Bureau  of  Steam  Engineering, 
lie  was  called  upon  to  run  his  engines  for  l-i4  hours  at  top 
speed  without  being  allowed  the  opportunity  to  test  them  by  a 
preliminary  run  at  sea,  to  give  opportunity  for  adjusting  the 
various  parts  of  the  machinery  one  to  another,  and  to  ascertain 
that  everything  was  in  working  order.  He  was  to  be  allowed 
'•  a  reasonable  time"  to  work  the  engines  at  the  wharf.  Then 
the  trial  at  sea  was  to  begin,  and  "  last  six  days  and  six  nights 
under  maximum  boiler  pressure,  the  steam-blast  in  the  chim- 
neys to  be  in  full  operation  during  the  whole  time." 

Of  this  Ericsson  said  :  "An  engine  may  work  well  at  the 
dock  and  yet  heat  up  the  moment  the  engines  are  under  full 
speed  and  the  ship  begins  to  work  in  a  seaway.  Xo  one  un- 
derstands this  better  than  Isherwood;  nay,  more,  he  knows 
that  it  is  simply  impossible  to  work  an  engine  of  such  enor- 
mous power — a  direct-acting  100-inch — without  several  weeks' 
previous  work  at  sea.  If  any  proofs  were  needed  to  show 
the  real  intention  of  this  contractor's  trial  trip,  we  have  it  in 
the  order  contained  in  the  instructions  to  Admiral  Gregory,  to 
force  the  draught  in  the  smoke-pipes  during  the  whole  trial, 
and  at  the  same  time  put  on  the  steam-blast !  The  writer 
has  never  been  in  a  large  steamship  with  steam-blast  applied 
in  the  smoke-pipes.  The  idea  of  resorting  to  such  draught 
for  six  days  and  six  nights  is  worthy  of  a  madman,  not  to 
say  villain.  .  .  .  The  Madaicasha  will  rot  at  the  dock  before 
I  furnish  engineers  for  a  trial  trip,  or  incur  the  responsibility 
of  working  Isherwood's  dangerous  steam  traps  any  more." 

So  the  vessel  was  sent  on  a  trial  trip  against  Ericsson's 
emphatic  protest  and  with  no  one  on  board  to  represent  him, 
and  the  orders  were  given  to  deduct  the  price  of  eighteen  tons 
of  coal,  and  the  engine  stores  consumed  in  the  trial,  from  the 
$100,000  reserved  from  the  contract  price.  In  contrast  with 
this  treatment,  Ericsson  pointed  to  British  precedent,  saying: 

"  In  England  contractors  are  treated  with  every  possible 


contributio:ns  to  steam  engineering.         189 

consideration.  The  desire  of  the  Admiralty  is  to  obtain  good 
machinery,  but  not  to  embarrass  and  oppress  the  builder. 
Accordingly,  the  ship  is  put  in  commission  and  run  for  the 
benefit  of  the  contractor,  and  not  until  lie  reports  that  the 
machinery  is  in  good  working  condition,  is  the  ship  taken  and 
run  the  '  measured  mile.'  The  official  trial  consists  in  running 
the  vessel  six  times  in  succession  over  the  measured  mile.  If 
all  works  well  the  ship  is  accepted ;  if  not,  every  facility  of 
docking  is  afforded  and  the  contractor  allowed  another  private 
trial — contractor's  trial — before  going  again  to  the  '  measured 
mile.' " 

Ericsson's  forebodings  were  happily  not  realized,  and  on  a 
final  trial  trip  the  Madaioaska  established  her  claim  to  be  the 
fastest  naval  vessel  then  afloat.  February  15,  1867,  Ericsson 
wrote  to  Adlersparre : 

"  It  gives  me  much  pleasure  to  inform  you  that  my  great 
opponent,  Isherwood,  has  stated  to  members  of  the  Naval 
Committee  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  '  that  the  Mada- 
wasJca  is  the  fastest  ship  of  war  in  the  world,  that  her  rate  is 
sixteen  knots,  and  that  she  could  make  seventeen  knots  over 
the  English  measured  mile.'  The  truth  is,  the  success  of  the 
new  engine  has  been  so  complete  as  to  overwhelm  the  Bureau 
Chief — his  policy,  therefore,  is  to  go  with  and  not  against  the 
current,  in  this  instance." 

Eighteen  days  before  this  an  officer  of  the  Navy  had  writ- 
ten to  the  Assistant  Secretary  to  say  :  "  The  Madawaska  is 
the  fastest  ship  of  war  in  the  world  ;  no  one  but  possibly  the 
Bureau  Chief  questions  the  fact.  As  you  took  the  responsi- 
bility of  ordering  the  vibrating  lever  engines  to  be  applied  to 
this  ship,  you  will,  no  doubt,  be  glad  to  hear  what  I  have 
stated." 

February  1,  1867,  Ericsson  wrote  to  John  Bourne,  contra- 
dicting unfavorable  statements  concerning  his  engine,  and  say- 
ing : 

The  fact  is  that  during  five  consecutive  hours  the  rate  was  15i  knots ; 
during  two  hours  the  rate  was  15.^  knots,  and  during  short  intervals 
even  higher,  with  less  than  one-fourth  throttle  open  !  No  attempt  was 
made  to  ascertain  the  speed  with  full  throttle,  as  Isherwood's  boilers 
did  not  admit  of  such  a  test.     The  engineers  of  the  vessel  say  they  can 


190  LIFE  OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

readily  make  and  hold  16  knots.  Over  your  "  measured  mile,"  such  a 
rate  would  be  play.  This  is  strictly  for  your  own  information.  I  have 
some  trouble  in  settling  with  the  Navy  Department  on  account  of  Ish- 
erwood's  opposition,  and  therefore  must  keep  silent  for  the  time  being. 
You  may  judge  of  the  importance  of  the  matter  when  I  state  that  I 
have  expended  §940,000  in  building  the  steam  machinery  of  this  ex- 
traordinary ship — extraordinary  in  many  respects,  as  you  may  learn  some 
day. 

To  R.  B.  Forbes  he  sent,  August  23,  1883,  this  statement 
of  the  ultimate  fate  of  the  Madawaska : 

The  Madawaska  was  laid  up  because  a  Board  of  Experts  had  re- 
moved from  the  vessel  one-half  of  her  original  boiler-power,  the  remain- 
ing half  being  utterly  insufficient  to  supply  steam  for  the  two  100-inch 
cylinder  engines  without  running  at  so  slow  a  rate  that  the  centres 
could  not  be  passed.  I  have  neither  the  time  nor  inclination  to  furnish 
the  history  of  this  remarkable  ship. 

In  1881  Captain  Ericsson  built  a  single  cylinder,  non-con- 
densing steam-engine,  capable — according  to  a  calculation  he 
has  left  on  record — of  making  more  than  two  thousand  turns 
in  a  minute.  On  the  second  trial  he  reported  that  it  developed 
12.3  horse-power  with  a  speed  of  1,230  revolutions  in  a  min- 
ute. The  steam  pressure  admitted  to  the  valve-chest  was  55 
pounds  per  square  inch,  working  with  half-expansion.  The 
single  vertical  cylinder  was  5  inches  in  diameter  and  3  inches 
stroke.  The  weight  of  this  little  engine,  independent  of  the 
friction  pulley,  15  inches  in  diameter,  was  353  pounds.  Dur- 
ing a  continuous  run  of  eleven  hours  and  twenty-five  minutes, 
this  engine  made  732,340  revolutions,  an  average  of  1,069.1 
revolutions  per  minute.  After  the  first  quarter  of  an  hour 
there  was  no  perceptible  variation  in  speed  during  the  run. 
The  steam  pressure  in  the  chest  stood  very  uniformly  at  25 
pounds.  The  boiler  pressure  varied  between  55  pounds  and 
85  pounds.  Steam  expands  so  quickly  that  it  will  follow  up 
without  loss  of  pressure  a  piston  moving  at  the  rate  of  1,000 
feet  in  a  minute. 

Ericsson  informed  his  friends  at  this  time  that,  before  he 
discontinued  his  labors,  he  should  present  to  the  world  a  steam- 
engine  which  would  practically  develop  the  entire  dynamic  en* 


CONTKIBUTIONS   TO   STEAM   ENGINEERING.  191 

ergy  of  the  steam,  "  thus  putting  an  end  to  further  improve- 
ments and  speculation  as  regards  steam  consumed  and  power 
produced."  He  hoped  to  "  materially  benefit  civilization, 
by  checking  the  rapid  exhaustion  of  the  coal  fields  which 
threatens  to  put  a  stop  to  human  progress  in  the  not  distant  fu- 
ture." This  purpose  he  believed  to  be  realized  in  an  engine 
patented  in  the  United  States,  December  6,  1887,  and  intend- 
ed to  convert  steam  into  work,  altogether  independent  of  the 
method  of  its  generation.  It  performed,  he  reported,  "  the 
astounding  mechanical  feat  of  developing  a  perfectly  uniform 
power  by  expanding  steam  thirty-six  times.  The  engine  was 
constructed  with  two  cylinders  only,  their  pistons  being  con- 
nected with  the  same  piston-rod,  and  receiving  the  pressure  and 
expansive  force  of  steam  on  one  side  only.  Thus  each  cylinder 
and  piston  was  single-acting ;  the  high-pressure  piston  during 
the  entire  stroke  produced  by  the  direct  action  of  the  steam 
upon  it,  working  against  a  vacuum,  the  low-pressure  piston 
being  the  same  time  in  equilibrio."  To  this  engine,  patented 
in  the  United  States,  June  17,  1887,  he  gave  the  name  of 
"  Ericsson's  Expansion  Engine." 

Mr.  Egbert  P.  "Watson,  in  the  article  already  quoted  from, 
says:  "Ericsson  was  a  scornful  disbeliever  in  multi-cylinder 
engines.  lie  asserted  that  these  were  only  devices  of  English 
engine  builders  to  increase  the  cost,  and  he  denied  that  multi- 
cylinder  engines  were  necessary  to  economy,  or  to  high  ratios 
of  expansion.  He  asserted  that  a  two-cylinder  engine  could  be 
made  to  show  as  high  economy  as  any  other,  all  things  being 
equal,  and  he  constructed  one  of  sixty  horse-power,  and  ran  it 
at  the  Delamater  Works  for  a  year  or  so.  This  engine  pro- 
duced a  horse-power  for  fourteen  pounds  of  water,  and  showed 
high  efficiency." 

While  recognizing  its  advantages  for  actuating  screw  pro- 
pellers, Ericsson  regarded  the  triple  expansion  engine  as  very 
defective  in  principle,  for  a  motor  intended  to  develop  the  full 
energy  of  steam,  besides  being  complicated.  His  expansion 
engine  was  intended  for  electrical  purposes,  and  such  an  engine 
should,  he  contended,  be  non-condensing,  as  water  for  conden- 
sation cannot  be  obtained  in  large  cities.  It  was  accordingly 
adapted  to  working  without  condensing  the  steam,  or  in  other 


192  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

words,  converted  into  a  high-pressure  engine — a  type  of  engine 
performing  nine-tenths  of  the  service  which  mankind  derives 
from  steam.  This  engine  expanded  the  steam  sixteen-fold  ;  as 
compared  with  the  thirty-six-fold  expansion  of  the  condensing 
expansion  engine.  For  this  engine  the  claim  was  made  that  it 
developed  a  greater  amount  of  power,  with  a  given  quantity  of 
coal,  than  any  other  steam-engine  thus  far  presented  to  the 
public.  Ericsson  believed  that  it  would  ere  long  revolutionize 
engine  construction.  To  it  he  devoted  the  last  labors  of  his 
life,  and  he  was  engaged  upon  it  at  the  time  of  his  fatal  illness. 
Less  than  five  weeks  before  his  death  he  wrote  a  long  letter 
concerning  it  to  Mr.  S.  B.  Browning,  his  wife's  nephew,  upon 
whom  he  had  bestowed  the  patent  rights  for  xsew  Zealand  and 
Australia. 

In  this  letter  he  said :  "  The  Non-condensing  Expansion 
Engine  has  been  completed  some  time.  It  is  the  most  econom- 
ical high-pressure  engine  in  existence,  design  and  workmanship 
never  having  been  excelled.  .  .  .  The  power  of  our  engine 
cannot  be  superseded  by  future  inventions,  as  it  develops  all 
the  dynamic  energy  which  a  given  weight  of  steam  contains." 

On  March  2,  ISSS,  Ericsson  wrote  to  Mr.  Browning,  saying  : 
"  The  actual  power  of  the  expansion  engine,  with  and  without 
condensation,  has  proved  an  unexpected  success.  Indeed,  it  is 
regarded  as  a  revolution  in  hydraulic  engineering,  since  it  ad- 
mits of  running  the  pumps  at  one  hundred  and  fifty  strokes 
per  minute  without  occasioning  any  concussion  whatever  in  the 
delivery  pipes  which  convey  the  water  to  distant  points.  Some 
of  my  friends  say  that  the  hydraulic  machine  is  as  important  to 
our  rapidly  increasing  towns  as  the  motor  which  actuates  the 
same.  You  must,  therefore,  not  be  surprised  if  you  find  ray 
name  again  among  applicants  for  English  patents."  This  hy- 
draulic machine  combined  an  air-pump  with  a  force-pump,  in 
such  a  way  as  to  relieve  the  piston  or  plunger  of  the  weight  of 
the  column  of  water  set  in  motion  at  each  stroke.  This  made 
it  possible  to  work  the  pump  at  a  high  velocity. 

Tlie  condensing  expansion  engine  was  one  of  the  last  enter- 
prises in  which  Ericsson  was  engaged  with  his  friend  of  half  a 
century,  Mr.  Delamater.  When  finished,  it  was  set  at  work 
running  machinery  of  the  Delamater  Iron  Works,  and  a  hj- 


COS^TRIBUTIONS   TO   STEAM   EISTGINEERING.  19^ 

draulic  machine  raising   three   hundred  thousand  gallons  of 
water  one  hundred  feet  high  in  twenty-four  hours. 

Mr.  Delaniater's  letters  show  that  he  had  his  doubts  as  to 
the  commercial  value  of  an  engine  carrying  two  hundred  and 
twenty-five  pounds  pressure,  when  the  public  had  been  educated 
not  to  expect  over  one  hundred  pounds  in  stationary  engines ; 
locomotives  and  steamships  using  one  hundred  and  sixty  pounds. 
Other  engines  of  the  non-condensing  compound  type  claimed 
equal  advantages  of  simplicity,  economy,  little  clearance,  high 
speed,  automatic  lubrication,  compactness,  and  neat  design.  He 
warned  his  friend,  in  short,  that  the  world  was  moving  faster 
than  he  supposed ;  that  many  Columbuses  were  learning  to  set 
ihe  egg  on  end. 
Vol.  IL— 13 


CHAPTER  XXXL 

HONORS  CONFERRED  UPON  ERICSSON. 

False  Reports  of  Ericsson's  Death. — Invitation  from  the  Crown  Prince 
of  Sweden. — Appointed  Commissioner  to  the  Paris  Exhibition. — 
Receives  the  Thanks  of  the  Swedish  Riksdag.  —  Honorary  Degrees 
Conferred. — His  Relation  to  His  Profession. — Monument  Erected 
at  His  Birth-place. — Ericsson's  Opinion  of  the  American  Congress. 

FROM  a  Swedish  paper  Ericsson  learned,  in  1S79,  that  a 
rumor  was  afloat  in  his  native  country  tliat  he  was  to  be 
appointed  to  the  Cabinet  of  President  Hayes  as  Secretary  of 
the  2savy.  He  telegraphed  contradicting  the  report,  and  say- 
ing :  "  I  do  not  desire  to  occupy  a  position  the  duties  of  which 
no  one  but  a  sailor  can  properly  discharge.*'  The  probability 
of  such  an  appointment  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that 
General  Kelson  A,  Miles,  U.S.A.,  states  that  wlien  he  spoke  to 
President  Hayes  of  Ericsson  he  replied  that  he  supposed  he 
was  dead. 

M.  Pierre  Larousse,  in  his  "  Grand  Dictionnaire  Universel 
du  XlXme.  Siecle,"  edition  of  1S70,  had  announced  that  John 
Ericsson  "  mort  eii  1S69  a  Richhuid  {Etat  de  y.  Y.)  d<s  suites  de 
la  morsure  dun  chien  enrage."'  Drake's  "  Dictionary  of  Ameri- 
can Biography,"  published  in  1ST2,  made  the  same  statement, 
fixing  the  date  of  death  as  March  5,  ISGO,  and  omitting  the 
explanation  that  it  was  due  to  the  bite  of  a  mad  dog.  The 
"  Catalogue  of  Wesleyan  University  "  changed  the  date  to  1S70, 
and  the  locality  to  Stockholm,  Sweden.  As  a  proof  of  the 
statement  to  appear  in  the  catalogue  was  sent  to  Ericsson,  he 
was  able  to  demonstrate  that  he  was  still  alive  by  returning  it 
with  a  correction. 

In  1S66  a  great  industrial  exhibition  was  held  at  Stockholm, 
and  to  this  Ericsson  was  invited  in  a  letter  addressed  to  liim 
by  the  President  of  the  Commission,  the  Crown  Prince,  after- 


HONORS   CONFERRED   UPON   ERICSSON.  195 

ward  Oscar  11.     A  translation  of  his  letter  with  Ericsson's  re- 
ply is  here  given  : 

Stockholm,  May  4,  1866. 

To  THE  Captain,  Commander,  etc.,  etc.,  John  Ericsson:  When  a 
private  individual  gives  fetes  he  seeks  to  surround  himself  with  a  circle 
of  near  relatives  and  friends,  and  to  bring  together  the  most  distin- 
guished among  his  acquaintance. 

So  also  at  public  fetes  is  a  nation  desirous,  and  very  properly,  to 
have  as  guests  those  men  who  hold  high  place  in  its  regard  and  pride, 
and  who  through  their  genius  and  distinguished  personal  services  have 
benefited  their  countiy  and  excited  admiration  throughout  the  world. 

Sweden,  your  native  land,  is  soon  to  give  a  great  and  significant  fete. 
Here,  in  her  beautiful  capital  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Miilaren,  opens,  June 
15th,  a  grand  industrial  and  art  exhibition  common  to  the  entire  North, 
viz.,  the  three  Scandinavian  peoples  and  Finland. 

The  arrival  here  of  John  Ericsson  would  be  greeted  with  rejoicing 
by  every  Swede,  and  the  fatherland  would  receive  a  fresh  proof  that  her 
memory  is  cherished  and  beloved  by  her  energetic  and  distinguished 
son,  resident  in  a  distant  land. 

As  I  have  the  happiness  to  be  at  the  head  of  the  coming  Industrial 
Exhibition,  the  honor  belongs  to  me  to  express  the  wish  that  our  nation- 
al festivity  may  be  heightened  by  your  presence.  And  I  feel  confident 
that  this  wish  is  participated  in,  not  only  by  the  Central  Committee, 
but  also  by  eveiy  thinking  man  in  Sweden. 

"With  distinguished  regard  and  true  feelings  of  aflfection, 

Oscar. 

New  York,  May  29,  1866. 

To  His  Royal  Highness,  the  Duke  of  Ostergotland  :  Your  Royal 
Highness's  gracious  and  encouraging  communication  of  May  -ith  I  beg 
most  humbly  to  answer  by  the  statement  that  work  of  such  importance 
has  been  entrusted  to  me  as  to  render  my  absence  from  America,  at 
present,  impossible.  I  lack  words  to  express  my  gratitude  for  your 
Royal  Highness's  condescending  goodness  in  sending  me  an  invitation  to 
visit  the  fatherland  during  the  coming  significant  national  fete.  Sig- 
nificant in  many  respects,  but  most  because  directed  by  a  prince  uniting 
with  the  highest  attainments  and  the  soundest  judgment,  in  all  that  con- 
cerns our  practical  age,  a  profound  knowledge  and  the  warmest  feeling 
for  the  liberal  arts. 

The  spirit  of  our  times  is  somewhat  too  utilitarian.  How  fortunate, 
therefore,  that  the  grand  Scandinavian  Industrial  and  Art  Exhibition  is 
under  your  Royal  Highness'  guidance  ! 

The  works  of  the  mechanic,  the  tasteful  creations  of  the  architect, 
the  faithful  coloring  of  the  painter,  the  sculptor's  successful  copy  of  the 
sublime  perfection  which  pervades  animate  nature — all  these  will  now 


196  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

meet  equal  justice,  since  the  eye  of  the  judge  is  keen  enough  to  view 
the  entire  field  ! 

The  occasion  commands  me  to  mention  that  your  Royal  Highness's 
poetical  works  have  afforded  the  Swedes  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  the 
greatest  enjoyment.  The  many  hidden  beauties  of  our  powerful  and 
sentimental  language,  which  your  Royal  Highness'  genius  calls  forth, 
charm  with  their  clear  sound  the  Swedish  ear,  perhaps  more  here  than 
in  the  fatherland.  We  hear  so  seldom  the  strains  from  our  native  land 
that  when  your  Royal  Highness  tunes  the  lyre  we  listen  more  attentive- 
ly, and  enjoy  more  than  our  brethren  at  home. 

Your  Royal  Highness'  faithful  servant, 

J.  Ericsson. 

In  August,  1866,  Captain  Ericsson  was  offered  by  the  De- 
partment of  State  at  Washington  the  appointment  as  Commis- 
sioner to  the  Universal  Exhibition  at  Paris.  After  delaying 
for  some  time  to  see  whetlier  he  could  not  arrange  to  accept 
this  compliment,  he  was  compelled  to  reply  that  he  could  not 
secure  his  release  from  existing  engagements.  In  return  he 
received  a  polite  expression  of  regret  that  he  was  obliged  to 
decline.  His  pre-occnpation  with  the  work  of  defending 
Sweden  by  sea  and  land  was  his  excuse.  That  he  appreciated 
the  honor  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  he  M'rote  to  his  brother, 
saying  that  it  was  the  greatest  honor  that  had  been  conferred 
upon  him,  as  he  was,  strictly  speaking,  ineligible,  being  himself 
known  as  an  inventor. 

Concerning  the  Centennial  Exhibition  at  Philadelphia, 
Ericsson  wrote :  "  I  cannot  imagine  what  we  have,  excepting 
the  multitudinous  mechanical  Yankee  notions,  to  show  persons 
who  have  visited  the  grand  European  exhibitions.  It  is  hardly 
worth  crossing  the  Atlantic  to  see  ship-loads  of  quartz,  iron 
ores,  and  other  minerals  displayed  by  mining  speculators,  trunks 
of  trees  twenty-five  feet  in  diameter,  California  apples  thirty 
inches  in  circumference,  nor  even  AVasliington's  sword  and 
breeches." 

In  1865  Ericsson  received  a  resolution  of  thanks  from  the 
Swedish  Riksdag,  or  Parliament,  conveyed  by  King  Carl  XV., 
under  the  royal  seal  and  signature.  This  was  the  first  time  that 
the  Swedish  Diet  had  bestowed  such  an  honor.  As  the  motion 
to  pass  such  a  vote  originated  in  the  lower  chamber,  there  was 
at  first  some  objection  to  it  in  the  aristocratic  iipper  house, 


HONORS   CONFERRED   UPON   ERICSSON.  197 

but  it  was  finally  adopted  without  further  opposition.  Previous 
to  1862,  Ericsson,  besides  his  decoration  as  Knight  of  the 
Order  of  Yasa,  had  been  chosen  a  corresponding  member  of 
the  Fj-anklin  Institute,  Pliiladelphia,  Pa,,  an  honorary  member 
of  the  Royal  Military  Academy  of  Science  of  Stockholm,  and 
an  honorary  member  of  the  Koyal  Military  Academy  of  Swe- 
den. In  1862  he  received  the  Joint  Hesolution  of  thanks  from 
the  United  States  Congress,  and  a  resolution  of  thanks  from 
the  legislature  of  the  State  of  New  York,  the  Rumford  gold 
and  silver  medals,  and  a  gold  medal  from  the  Society  of  Iron 
Masters,  Sweden ;  1863  brought  to  him  the  diploma  of  LL.D. 
from  "VVesleyan  University,  and  he  was  chosen  an  honorary 
member  of  the  Society  of  Man-of-Wars  Men,  Sweden;  a 
Knio-ht  Commander  with  the  Grand  Cross  of  the  Order  of 
the  North  Star,  and  a  Commander  of  the  Order  of  Saint  Olof. 
In  acknowledging  the  honor  conferred  upon  him  by  "Wes- 
leyan  University,  Ericsson  said : 

It  may  not  be  inappropriate  under  the  circumstances  to  state  that, 
•while  I  am  not  very  familiar  with  Homer  and  Virgil,  in  the  exact 
sciences  I  am  quite  at  home — nothing  within  the  range  of  mechanical 
philosophy  is  strange  to  me.  Pray  do  not  misconstrue  the  object  of  this 
statement,  made  solely  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  academical  authori- 
ties, who  have  probably  transgressed  strict  rules  to  give  a  marked  ex- 
pression of  approbation  in  my  behalf. 

I  thank  you  cordially  for  the  very  kind  manner  in  which  you  have 
conveyed  to  me  the  pleasing  information  that  I  now  hold  the  honorable 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  of  the  Wesleyan  University. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

J.  Eeicsson. 

To  Joseph  Cummings,  President  of  Wesleyan  University. 

In  1868  came  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy  from  the 
Royal  University  of  Lund,  and  honorary  membership  in  the  So- 
ciety of  Workmen,  Sweden  ;  honorary  membership  in  the  Roy- 
al Scientific  Society  of  Upsala  followed  in  1869,  and  in  1870 
honorary  membership  in  the  Physiological  Society  of  Lund, 
the  Spanish  Order  of  Isabel  la  Catolica.  already  alluded  to, 
and  the  decoration  of  Knight  Commander,  first  class,  Danish 
Order  of  Danneborg.  The  Society  of  Practical  Engineering 
and  the  Society  of  Sciences,  Goteborg,  Sweden,  and  the  Ameri- 


198  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

can  Philosophical  Society  elected  Ericsson  honorary  member 
in  1873.  The  American  Society  of  Civil  Engineers  and  the 
U.  S.  2s aval  Institute  bestowed  this  honor  in  1879,  and  the 
Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers  in  1882.  The  next  year 
the  last  named  society  elected  him  Vice-President,  but  he  was 
compelled  to  decline  the  honor.  A  gold  medal  was  awarded 
by  the  Emperor  of  Austria  in  1877,  and  in  1886  King  Alfonso 
of  Spain  bestowed  the  Hoyal  Letters  Patent  of  a  Knight  of 
the  Grand  Cross  of  the  Order  of  Xaval  Merit,  with  the  White 
Badge  and  Star.* 

In  1808  Ericsson  received  and  declined  an  invitation  to 
serve  with  Professor  Henry,  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution, 
and  Professor  Ililgard,  of  the  Coast  Survey,  on  a  committee 
to  select  a  meter  for  use  in  the  collection  of  the  tax  on  spirits. 

To  the  American  Society  of  Civil  Engineers,  Ericsson  sent 
a  letter  declining  to  accept  the  honor  tendered  him,  for  the 
reason  that  it  had  been  too  tardily  conferred.  He  briefly  re- 
viewed his  engineering  work,  and  said  :  "  Posterity  will  infer 
that,  since  the  Board  of  the  American  Society  of  Civil  Engi- 
neers could  not  possibly  have  been  ignorant  of  what  I  accom- 
plished, circumstances  unknown  to  the  public  must  have  com- 
pelled these  men  to  withhold  my  name.  In  order,  therefore, 
that  I  may  not  be  subjected  to  uncharitable  innuendoes,  now  or 
hereafter,  I  respectfully  ask  that  you  will  not  inscribe  my  name 
on  the  list  of  Honorary  members  of  the  American  Society  of 
Civil  Engineers." 

*  The  Order  ofVasa  was  founded  by  GustavusIII.,  in  1776.  to  reward  impor- 
tant serrice  to  the  nation.  The  Order  of  the  Polar  Star  is  conferred  for  zeal  in 
the  promotion  of  public  good  and  useful  institutions.  The  Order  of  St.  Olaf 
was  founded  in  1S47,  to  commemorate  the  monarch  who  introduced  Christian- 
hv  into  Norway.  1015.  It  rewards  patriotism  and  distinction  in  the  arts  and 
»ciences.  The  Order  of  Isabella  the  Catholic  was  founded  in  1S15,  to  reward 
loyalty  to  the  royal  house  of  Spain  and  the  defence  of  the  Spanish  posses- 
sions in  America.  It  confers  personal  nobility,  and  the  Grand  Cross,  bestowed 
upon  Ericsson,  the  title  of  •"  Excellency."  This  title  and  the  honors  due  to 
a  lieutenant-general  go  with  the  decoration  of  the  first  class  of  the  Danne- 
borg.  It  is  only  by  special  favor  of  the  king  that  entrance  to  the  highest 
class  of  the  Danneborg  is  allowed  without  promotion  from  a  lower  class.  The 
order  commemorates  the  tradition  that  the  Christian  knights  of  Denmark  were 
inspired  to  overcome  the  heathen  Esthonians  by  the  appearance,  in  1219,  of  * 
flag  in  the  heavens. 


HONOES   CONFERRED   UPON   ERICSSON.  199 

"With  reference  to  a  similar  honor  bestowed  by  another  so- 
ciety he  wrote  this  characteristic  letter  to  Mr.  Forbes,  August 
23,  1880 : 

Nothing  could  induce  me  to  read  anything  that  is  said  to  emanate 
from  the  pen  of  J.  B.  Eads.  I  was  brought  in  close  contact  with  that 
"  eminent  mechanical  engineer  "  during  the  war,  and  I  found  him  to  be 
a  huge  sham  sustained  by  hired  brains.  The  National  Academy  of  Sci- 
ences at  Washington,  some  time  ago,  elected  simultaneously  two  great 
engineers,  Eads  and  Ericsson,  as  members.  On  alphabetical  consider- 
ations Eads  name  stood  above  mine  on  the  list.  Apart  from  this,  the 
Academy  ought  to  have  elected  me  some  twenty  years  previously.  Un- 
der these  circumstances  I  refused  to  accept  the  great  favor,  insisting 
that  my  name  should  be  erased  from  the  roll  of  honor  (already  printed 
and  partially  published).  Of  course  this  unprecedented  refusal  in- 
creased the  number  of  my  enemies  in  certain  scientific  circles.  The 
number  of  opponents  has  remained  stationary,  as  everybody  was  against 
me  already. 

This  certainly  was  not  the  way  to  stimulate  professional  re- 
gard, but  Ericsson  had  reasons  of  his  own  for  feeling  that  he 
owed  small  thanks  to  those  who  create  professional  opinion. 
He  thought  he  detected  a  disposition  among  them  to  ignore  him 
or  to  dwell  upon  his  mistakes,  while  overlooking  his  contribu- 
tions to  professional  knowledge.  Mistakes  he  made,  unquestion- 
ably, but  of  his  critics  John  Bourne  has  truthfully  said,  there 
is  not  one  of  them  who  would  not  "  have  been  a  much  more 
distinguished  engineer  than  lie  is  if  he  had  never  done  any- 
thing in  his  life  except  to  contrive  the  mistakes  of  Ericsson." 
Prof.  MacCord,  who  quotes  this,  further  says  : 

It  is  sometimes  said  now,  as  it  was  often  said  then,  in  a  derogatory 
sense,  that  Captain  Ericsson  made  many  mistakes,  and  that  he  persist- 
ently refused  to  accept  the  suggestions  of  others.  It  cannot  be  denied 
that  both  of  these  things  are  true,  but  the  recoil  of  this  weapon  ia  its  only 
dangerous  feature  ;  for  due  account  must  be  taken  of  the  new  and  orig- 
inal work  which  he  accomplished,  thereby  making  himself  a  tremen- 
dous factor  in  the  material  progress  of  the  world  during  the  present 
centuiy.  He  was  versatile  and  prolific  in  ideas  to  an  extent  seldom  ap- 
proached, his  work  being  no  less  remarkable  for  its  variety  than  for  its 
intrinsic  importance,  while  its  amount  was  simply  astounding  ;  so  that 
its  execution,  even  with  his  unrivalled  celerity,  would  have  been  impos- 
sible without  uninterrupted  appUcation.     Plenty  there  were  who  were 


200  LIFE   OF   JOUN   ERICSSON. 

vdlling — many  much  more  than  they  were  able — to  give  advice.  Had  he 
taken  time  to  listen  to  it  all,  the  record  of  what  he  has  done  would 
have  been  much  shorter  than  it  is. 

Such  utterances  serve  only  to  show  the  depths  to  which  it  is  possi- 
ble for  little  minds  to  descend.  For  the  very  lowest  standard  by  which 
such  works  as  his  can  be  gauged  is  that  of  money  value  ;  and  leaving 
out  of  the  account  the  advances  which  he  had  already  made  in  naval 
warfare,  and  considering  only  the  effects  of  his  previous  career  upon 
the  peaceful  arts,  upon  commercial  enterprise,  and  general  material 
prosperity,  it  is  easy  to  show  that  the  gain  directly  traceable  to  his 
single-handed  exertions  is  gi-eat  almost  beyond  computation.  The  peo- 
ple were  very  largely  indebted  to  him  for  the  magnitude  of  the  interests 
at  stake  ;  in  a  word,  he  had  done  more  to  develop  this  country  than  he 
did  even  to  defend  it.  Either  was  a  more  than  sufficient  foundation  for 
enduring  fame,  but  with  the  latter  his  name  will  be  always  more  closely 
associated  by  every  true  American ;  and  simply  as  the  builder  of  the 
Monitor,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  memory  of  John  Ericsson  will  be 
green  in  the  minds  of  men  long  after  not  only  carping  criticisms,  but 
the  critics  themselves,  with  their  records,  their  achievements  and  all 
shall  have  been  sunk  fathoms  deep  in  the  everlasting  limbo  of  things 
forgotten. 

Innumerable  historical,  literary,  and  religious  organizations 
bore  the  name  of  John  Ericsson  on  their  lists  of  life  mem- 
bers, and  he  received  a  variety  of  medals  from  agricultural 
societies  in  America  and  Sweden  for  his  caloric  engines  applied 
to  agricultural  and  domestic  purposes.  On  the  occasion  of  the 
Centennial  Celebration,  May  26,  ISSO,  of  the  American  Acad- 
emy of  Arts  and  Sciences,  Ericsson  was  the  chosen  medium  for 
conveying  the  congratulations  of  the  two  Swedish  scientific 
societies  recognizing  him  as  a  member.  He  received  various 
invitations  to  lecture,  but  nothing  would  persuade  him  to  vio- 
late his  self-imposed  seclusion. 

Of  all  the  honors  bestowed  upon  him,  however,  no  one 
gave  him  more  sincere  pleasure  than  that  spoken  of  in  this 
correspondence : 

FiLiPSTAD,  October  2,  1867. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  mining  district  of  Filipstad,  your  place  of 
birth,  in  gratitude  for  the  love  you  have  from  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic  manifested  toward  this  your  early  home,  decided  to  establish  a 
monument  in  your  honor  at  Lingbanshyttan,  on  the  spot  where  you  were 
bom. 

A  monument  is   now  erected,   and  as  members  of  the  committee 


HONORS   CONFERRED   UPON   ERICSSON.  201 

charged  with  the  execution  of  the  undertaking,  it  is  our  duty  to  inform 
you  of  this. 

Expressing  our  personal  esteem  and  admiration  for  you,  we  have 
enclosed  extracts  from  papers  describing  the  festivities,  as  well  as  some 
photographs  taken  before  and  after  the  festival  at  your  birth-place. 
On  behalf  of  the  Committee  : 

A.  F.  BjorliX;  Pastor. 

P.  G.  Victor  Pat.ltn,  Physician. 

Anton  Sjogren,  Superintendent; 

T.  NxBERG,  Inspector  of  Mines. 

New  York,  October  29,  1867. 
To  Messrs.  Sjogren,  Bjorlin,  Pallin,  and  Nxberg  : 

My  best  thanks  for  your  letter  of  the  2d  October,  enclosing  the 
photographic  views  of  the  memorial  stone  which  has  been  erected  at 
Langbanshyttan.  That  my  countrymen  in  my  native  province  have  thus 
distinguished  my  birth-place  will  encourage  me  to  exert  myself  for  the 
benefit  of  my  country,  which  I  shall  never  forget. 

With  greatest  respect  and  afiection, 

J.  Ericsson. 

"With  sturdy  independence  the  inhabitants  of  Filipstad  had 
resolved  that  they  would  call  on  no  one  to  assist  them  in  this 
loving  enterprise.  Accordingly  they  hewed  out  of  the  granite 
rock  of  a  mountain  nearly  a  mile  away,  a  stately  stone,  18  feet 
in  height  and  8  feet  in  breadth  at  the  base,  and  upon  this  they 
inscribed  this  legend  : 

John  Ericsson 

was  born  here 

on  the  31st  of  July,  1803. 

The  intention  had  been  to  dedicate  the  monument  on  the 
anniversary  of  the  event  it  celebrated,  but  the  undertaking 
was  a  larger  one  than  they  had  anticipated,  and  the  stone  was 
not  ready  until  the  3d  of  September,  1867.* 

Then  from  all  directions,  gathered  in  holiday  attire,  this  sim- 
ple people,  men  and  women,  youths  and  maidens,  to  dedicate  on 
the  spot  John  Ericsson  loved  best,  and  where  centred  their 
own  local  pride,  this  testimonial  of  loving  esteem.  Flowers 
and  leaves  from  the  Yermland  forest  decked  birth-place  and 
monument,  and  the  ceremonies  proceeded  amid  calm  and  si- 

*  An  iUustration  of  this  monument  will  be  found  on  page  2,  volume  L 


202  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

lence  almost  devout,  such  as  is  common  in  this  region,  where 
the  deep  solemnity  of  surrounding  nature  seems  to  impress  it- 
self upon  the  minds  and  manners  of  the  people.  The  silence 
was  broken  by  the  music  of  a  hymn  plaj^ed  by  a  band  of  the 
Filipstad  Volunteers.  Next  Superintendent  Sjogren  appeared 
upon  a  stage  erected  in  front  of  the  house,  and  thus  spoke : 

If  it  be  the  duty  of  the  Fatherland  as  a  whole  to  erect  costlier 
memorials  to  her  famous  son,  it  behooved  us,  with  such  simple  expedi- 
ents as  we  have,  to  cut  on  the  Swedish  granite  the  runes  which  will  re- 
mind posterity  of  the  day  and  the  place  of  John  Ericsson's  birth.  .  .  . 
Especially  in  this  mining  district  have  we  felt  our  hearts  beat  faster  at 
the  intelligence  of  each  new  success,  won  by  our  great  countryman 
having  his  home  in  a  foreign  country.  At  each  new  victory  he  has 
gained  over  difficulties,  at  every  successful  attempt  to  tame  the  wild 
powers  of  nature  for  the  use  of  humanity,  we  have  been  able  to  ex- 
claim :  "  Here  John  Ericsson  was  bom  I  " 

At  these  words  the  covering  fell  from  the  stone,  the 
monument  shone  forth  in  the  clear  light  of  a  September  sun, 
and  from  the  depths  of  the  mines  sounded  forth  the  blasts 
that  served  in  place  of  salvos  of  artillery.  The  speaker  con- 
tinued with  the  history  of  Ericsson,  and  appropriate  reflections 
upon  it,  saying  in  conclusion  that  it  was  not  alone  for  his  great 
works  they  honored  him,  but  before  all  for  the  patriotism 
glowing  warmly  as  ever  after  an  absence  of  forty  years  ;  for 
the  confidence  he  had  given  to  the  Swedish  nation  in  its  ability 
to  defend  itself,  and  for  the  example  he  had  furnished  of  in- 
dustry, perseverance,  and  self-denial. 

Let  us  sound  our  praises  not  only  for  the  renowned  mechanician  and 
the  great  inventor,  but  also  for  the  warm-hearted,  unselfish,  noble  pa- 
triot— the  Swede,  John  Ericsson. 

The  shouts  of  the  assembled  people  were  followed  by  more 
music  from  the  band,  and  new  volleys  from  the  hidden  depths 
of  the  mines.  Printed  slips,  containing  verses  by  the  author 
of  "  Pre-historic  Chronicles,''  Dean  Afzelius,  and  from  J.  Bjork- 
lund.  Ph.  D.,  of  Goteborg,  were  then  distributed.  The  party 
next  proceeded  to  the  shores  of  Lake  Langban,  where  dinner  was 
served  beneath  the  trees.     At  a  turn  in  the  road  they  came  upon 


HONORS   CONFEKEED    UPON   ERICSSON.  203 

another  monument  to  the  brothers  Ericsson.  It  was  a  cast- 
iron  shaft,  set  upon  a  base  of  granite  and  bearing  this  inscrip- 
tion: 

In  a  bergsman's  home  at  Langbanshrttan  were  bom  the  two  broth- 
ers— Nils  Ericsson,  January  31,  1802,  and  John  Ericsson,  July  31,  1803, 
both  of  whom  have  sei-ved  and  honored  their  native  land.  Their  way 
through  work  to  knowledge  and  lasting  fame  is  open  to  every  Swedish 
youth. 

This  monument  serves  at  the  same  time  as  a  guide-post, 
and  on  the  obverse  appear  these  words : 

"  The  way  to  the  school 
house  of  Langbanshjttan." 

The  procession  respectfully  uncovered  their  heads  before 
the  monument,  the  band  played  a  national  melody,  and  when 
Doctor  Pallin  exclaimed:  "  Long  live  the  brothers  Ericsson!" 
the  whole  assembly  joined  with  all  their  hearts. 

In  the  crowd  assembled  at  Langbanshyttan  on  that  day 
were  two  typical  Swedish  mountaineers.  The  coarse  features 
of  the  one,  and  his  big  leathern  apron,  with  brass  buckles,  be- 
tokened a  miner  of  the  lowest  grade.  The  other  was  a  tall  and 
powerfully  built  man,  dressed  in  the  long  gray  coat  and  broad- 
brimmed  hat  of  the  bergsman.  His  bent  figure  bore  testimony 
to  his  life  of  laborious  physical  exertion,  as  well  as  to  his  years, 
and  on  his  regular  features  rested  an  expression  of  gentleness 
and  peace,  giving  proof  of  chastening  experience  and  an  hon- 
est life.  Upon  these  two  special  attention  was  bestowed,  for 
they  could  claim  fellowship  with  the  Ericssons  in  their  youth, 
and  had  shared  in  their  boyish  sports  upon  this  very  spot. 
One  was  Jonas  Olsson,  foreman  at  the  iron  foundry,  and 
when  John  Ericsson  recognized  his  name  in  the  published  ac- 
count of  the  proceedings  of  the  day,  he  sent  this  letter  to  Ad- 
lersparre : 

It  is  with  great  pleasure  I  find  that  at  the  dedication  of  the  monu- 
ment  at  Langbanshyttan,  my  former  playfellow  Jonas  Olsson,  now  fore- 


204  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSf^ON. 

man  at  the  iron  foundry,  was  present.  This  honorable  man  must  have 
a  souvenii-  from  me.  "SVill  you  excuse  me  troubling  you  again  ?  I  en- 
close a  check  for  fire  hundred  crowns,  and  would  you  please  for  that 
sum  buy  a  gold  watch  and  have  engraved  on  the  inside,  ' '  To  Jonas  Olsson 
from  his  playmate,  John  Ericsson,"  and  then  have  it  delivered  to  the 
honest  workman.  Could  this  be  done  through  my  friend  Gustaf  Ekman 
and  with  a  little  ceremony,  I  would  be  pleased. 

P.  S. — A  contradiction  in  the  report  of  the  festival  at  LSngbanshyt- 
tan  I  have  just  now  discovered.  They  say  in  one  place  that  Ekman 
and  Olsson  were  the  only  persons  there  who  had  known  me  personally, 
and  in  another  place  they  speak  about  "  the  miner  in  the  lai-ge  leathern 
apron  with  the  brass  buckle,"  as  having  been  my  old  playfeDow  ;  there- 
fore, to  prevent  his  being  jealous  of  Jonas  Olsson,  I  now  send  a  check 
for  one  hundred  and  fifty  crowns,  and  I  beg  of  you  to  have  this  little 
sum  sent  to  the  miner,  to  buy  himself  a  warm  coat  and  some  flour  for 
the  winter.  That  such  a  monument  is  now  erected  in  my  native  place 
encourages  me  more  than  words  can  describe.  Even  the  votes  of  thanks 
from  the  Swedish  Diet,  and  the  American  Congress,  now  seem  insignifi- 
cant compared  to  this  infallible  proof  of  my  countrymen's  approval.  In 
due  time  the  mining  district  of  Filipstad  will  receive  solid  proof  of  my 
gratitude. 

The  same  mail  carried  a  letter  to  the  Inspector  of  the  mines 
at  Langbanshyttan,  saying  :  "  Through  Captain  Commander  A. 
Adlersparre,  one  thousand  crowns  will  be  delivered  to  you.  I 
wish  you  would  distribute  this  among  tlie  aged  miners  failing 
in  health,  and  to  widows  and  children  of  miners  wlio  are  in 
need  of  help.  I  take  it  for  granted  that  you  will  distribute  the 
money  judiciously,  also  that  the  e.xecution  of  my  commission 
will  give  vou  the  same  satisfaction  as  it  does  me  to  be  able  to 
help  former  neighbors." 

Again  he  wrote,  four  days  later,  October  1,  1S67  : 

Mt  Deak  Captain  :  What's  done  in  haste  is  never  done  well !  Im- 
mediately after  I  had  mailed  my  last  letter,  I  was  very  near  sending  a 
telegram,  correcting  the  postscript  in  said  letter.  So  far  as  I  can  re- 
member, I  said  that  I  valued  the  monument  at  Langbanshyttan  more 
than  the  thanks  from  the  Swedish  Diet.  It  is  by  no  means  the  case, 
but  it  is  true  that  I  prize  it  more  than  the  vote  of  thanks  from  the 
American  Congress.  And  thus  I  expressed  myself  first  in  the  letter, 
but  fearing  that  you  might  suppose  I  had  forgotten  the  approval  of  the 
Swedish  representatives,  I  in  some  way  entangled  (how  I  cannot  now 
recollect)  this  valuable   testimonial  in  the  sentence.     Please  consider 


HONORS   CONFERRED    UPON   ERICSSON.  205 

the  thoughtless  addition  as  never  having  been  made,  and  you  will  blot 
from  mv  memorv  a  very  disagreeable  recollection. 

Ever  your  affectionate  and  grateful  friend, 

J.  Ebicsson. 


This  is  not  flattering  to  the  American  Congress,  but  one  of 
the  most  bitter  experiences  of  Ericsson's  life  was  the  refusal, 
or  neglect,  of  this  august  body  to  render  to  him  his  honest 
dues  for  his  work  upon  the  Princeton.  "  Rich  gifts  wax  poor 
when  givers  prove  unkind." 

This  refusal  had  been  recently  repeated  at  the  time  he 
wrote  this  letter.  In  a  petition  to  Congress,  Ericsson  had 
called  their  attention  to  the  fact  that,  the  unsatisfied  judgment 
of  the  Court  of  Claims  represented  "  not  only  the  services  and 
expenses  of  two  entire  years  exclusively  devoted  to  this  work, 
but  all  the  pecuniary  compensation  that  your  petitioner  has  re- 
ceived, or  can  receive,  for  the  creation  of  the  first  war  steamer 
in  any  country  of  the  class  now  universally  adopted,  not  only  in 
the  Navy  of  the  United  States,  but  in  all  other  navies  of  the 
world.''  This  petition,  for  the  payment  of  the  award  made  by 
the  Court  of  Claims  was  never  granted  by  Congress,  and  shortly 
before  his  death  Ericsson  wrote  that,  "  disgusted  with  the  re- 
peated injustice  of  Congress,''  he  had  requested  his  friend  Sar- 
gent, who  had  for  many  years  urged  this  claim,  "  to  abstain 
from  all  further  proceedings.''  He  pursued  his  demand  so  long 
as  he  did,  only  because  he  had  in  the  beginning  associated  an- 
other with  him  in  its  collection,  and  was  no  longer  free  to  con- 
sider his  own  wishes  and  interests  alone.  In  1S46  he  had 
written  to  his  attorney :  "  Could  I  only  put  m\  hand  into  my 
pocket  and  pay  for  your  time  and  prolonged  services  in  the  af- 
fair, I  would  cheerfully  dismiss  the  same  forever  from  my 
mind,  with  a  solemn  vow  never  to  seek  redress  before  the 
American  Congress  again.'' 

After  the  earlier  chapters  of  this  biography  had  been  com- 
pleted, the  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs  of  the  United  States 
Senate  presented  a  report,  recommending  that  an  appropriation 
be  made  to  pay  to  the  heirs  of  Captain  Ericsson  the  amount  of 
the  award  made  to  him  by  the  Court  of  Claims  for  the  Princeton^ 
viz.,  §13,930 ;  but  again  Congress  found  more  important  busi- 


206  LIFE  OF   JOHX    ERICSSON. 

ness  to  engage  its  attention,  and  adjourned  without  acting  upon 
this  recommendation.     In  this  report  the  Committee  sajs  : 


The  Princeton  proved  a  wonderful  and  complete  success,  largely  due 
to  the  many  new  and  important  features  invented  and  introduced  by 
Captain  Ericsson.  It  is  not  strange,  however,  that  Captain  Stockton 
wanted  the  greater  part  of  the  glory — such  is  human  nature.  Nine  years 
after  the  completion  of  the  Princeton  he  felt  that  injustice  had  been 
done  Captain  Ericsson  in  not  allowing  and  paying  his  just  claim.  Being 
an  honorable  man,  he  acknowledges  the  obligations  of  the  Government 
to  the  great  engineer,  and  recommends  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy 
"that  he  be  made  a  fair  and  reasonable  compensation  for  his  time  and 
esp>enses  while  engaged  in  sup>erintending  the  construction  of  the  Prince- 
ton's machinery,  etc."  The  Secretary  of  the  Navy  was  so  impressed 
with  this  recommendation  of  Captain  Stockton,  that  he  sent  the  letter  to 
the  Finance  Committee  of  the  Senate  ;  but  the  session  was  near  a  close 
and  nothing  came  of  it. 

The  question  may  be  asked  why  this  claim  has  been  allowed  to  sleep 
so  long.  Simply  because  Congress  is  not  swift  in  hunting  for  buried 
claims,  and  rarely  acts,  unless  persistently  urged  to  do  so,  even  in  the 
most  meritorious  cases.  Captain  Ericsson,  though  one  of  the  greatest 
marine  engineers  that  ever  lived,  if  not  the  greatest,  was  a  peculiar  man, 
proud,  sensitive,  and  stubborn,  and  for  a  long  time  he  refused  to  allow 
his  friends  to  push  this  claim  before  Congress.  He  felt  that  the  Govern- 
ment had  wronged  him,  in  that  it  had  not  paid  his  just  claim,  and  he 
was  not  willing  to  beg  for  what  was  justly  his  own.  Honorable  and 
manly,  he  felt  that  a  great  Government  ought  to  do  right  without  un- 
seemly importunity. 

It  is  well  known  that  after  he  had  invented  the  Monitor,  and  his 
genius  foresaw  its  success,  he  refused  to  come  to  "Washington  to  ex- 
plain his  invention  to  the  Navy  Department,  because  he  felt  that  the 
Government  had  wronged  and  neglected  him  in  the  Princeton  matter. 
Finally,  an  appeal  was  made  to  his  pride,  and  he  came  to  "Washington 
and  explained  his  great  invention  to  several  of  the  leading  naval  officers, 
some  of  whom  had  faith  in  it,  and  others  none.  At  any  rate  he  made 
such  an  impression  that  an  arrangement  was  made  by  which  the  ^fonHor 
could  be  constructed  by  outside  capital,  to  be  repaid  by  the  Government 
if  it  proved  a  success.  It  was  completed  and  manned  just  in  time  to 
meet  the  iron- clad  Merrimac,  in  Hampton  Roads,  after  the  Con;^ess  and 
Cumberland  had  gone  down  to  a  watery  grave  by  the  powerful  blows  of 
the  monster.  The  country  knows  the  history  of  the  memorable  battle 
between  the  Monitor  and  Merriinac.  In  less  than  ten  days  after  the 
sinking  of  the  wooden  ships,  had  not  the  MuJiitor  appeared,  the  Merri- 
mac  would  have  leisurely  steamed  to  Washington,  and  the  capital  of  a 
struggling  nation  would  have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.     If 


HONORS  CONFERRED   UPON  ERICSSON.  207 

that  had  happened,  no  man  can  tell  what  the  result  of  the  war  would 
have  been. 

Captain  Ericsson  saved  the  nation,  and  his  name  and  fame  were 
heralded  the  world  over.  The  principle  of  his  Monitor  was  adopted  by 
every  naval  power  in  the  world.  This  country  owes  him  a  debt  it  can 
never  pay.* 

*  See  Senate  Report  No.  1763,  Fifty-first  Congress,  First  Session,  September 
19,  1890.  The  statement  on  page  150,  vol.  i. ,  that  |3,000  was  allowed  Ericsson 
by  the  Navy  Department  for  the  use  of  the  patented  engines  in  the  Princeton 
conveys  the  incorrect  impression  that  this  amount  was  received  by  him.  The 
recommendation  that  it  be  paid  went  from  the  appropriate  bureau  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Mr.  Bancroft,  but  before  it  could  be  act«d  upon  h9 
wect  out  of  office. 


CHAPTER  XXXn. 

ERICSSON'S  SON  AND  BROTHER. 

Tjiie  Law  of  Heredity. — Nils  Ericsson's  Ability  as  an  Engineer, — Coi*^ 
spondence  between  the  Brothers. — John  Invited  to  Retnm  to  Swe- 
den.— Asked  to  Become  Consulting  Engineer  for  the  Scandinavian 
Kingdoms. — His  Financial  Condition. — Opposition  to  His  Brother's 
Change  of  Name. — His  Opinion  of  the  United  States. — John  Erics- 
son's Son,  Hjalmar. — His  First  Letter  to  His  Father. — His  First 
Visit  to  Him. — Wielding  the  Hammer  of  Thor. — Treatment  of  Med- 
ical Experts. — Death  of  the  Son. — Eiicsson's  English  Wife. — His 
Eelations  to  Her  Family. 

THE  transDiissioii  bv  Olof  Ericsson  of  qualities  that  produced 
two  such  engineers  as  Xils  and  John  Ericsson,  is  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  law  of  heredity,  finding  further  examples,  in  the  de- 
partment of  engineering,  in  the  German  brothers  Siemens,  the 
French  Brunels,  Anthony  Bessemer  and  his  son  Henry,  the 
English  Stephensons,  father  and  son,  and  in  the  American  family 
of  Stevens.  Xils,  if  less  original,  imaginative,  and  erratic  than 
his  brother,  was  hardly  less  able  as  an  engineer — within  the 
lines  of  precedent.  He  was  a  man  of  industry  and  energy,  of 
sterling  integrity  and  public  spirit,  and  an  excellent  organizer, 
while  his  conservative  and  cautious  temperament,  and  his  skill 
in  bending  others  to  his  purposes,  enabled  him  to  make  the  most 
of  his  opportunities.  He  retained  his  position  upon  the  Gota 
Canal,  when  his  brother  left  it  in  1S20,  and  gradually  won  his 
way  to  fame  and  fortune.  He  rose  to  the  head  of  the  canal 
corps,  and  after  completing  the  work  upon  the  water-ways 
uniting  the  Baltic  and  the  Xorth  Sea — the  *'  blue  ribbon  of 
Sweden  " — he  was  called  upon  by  the  king  to  take  charge  of 
the  construction  of  the  system  of  government  railways.  This 
great  work  completed,  he  finally  retired  in  1S62 — the  year  in 
which  his  brother  reached  the  culmination  of  his  fame — with 


ERICSSON'S   SON   AND   BROTHER. 


209 


the  title  of  barou  and  a  pension  larger  than  any  before  bestowed 
upon  a  Swedish  subject. 

]^ils  ponght  topersnade  John  to  follow  his  example  in  with- 


''*j5R 


/"' 


Lock  on  Gotha  Canal,   Trollhattan  Falls. 
[Constructed  by  Xils  Ericsson.] 


drawing  from  active  work,  and  urged  him  to  return  to  dwell 
near  him  in  the  fatherland  in  the  followins:  letter  : 


To  judge    from  your    last   letter,    your   work    lias  not    only   given 

you  honor,  fame,  and  respect,  but  now  also  fortune.      I  congratulate 

you  most  heartily  on  this,  for  it  is  none  too  soon  at  sixty  years  of  age. 

But  I  hope  you  will  carry  out  your  intention  of  coming  home,  if  not  to 

Vol.  II.— 14 


210  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

settle,  at  least  to  stay  for  some  time.  You  coixld  not  find  the  same 
sphere  of  action  here,  but  you  ought  to  see  your  fatherland  before  you 
are  too  old.  You  will  stay  with  me  part  of  next  summer,  we  will  visit 
Langbanshyttan  together  and  father's  and  mother's  graves,  and  have  a 
monument  erected  there.  You  will  see  my  works  at  Trollhattan,  at 
Stockholm,  and  the  railways,  etc. ;  you  will  observe  the  great  progi-ess 
the  country  has  made  since  you  left  in  1825.  If  you  have  succeeded  in 
securing  an  amount  of  cajntal  in  excess  of  what  is  needed  for  some 
profitable  industrial  enterprise,  and  can  possess  yourself  of  some  beauti- 
ful \'illa  in  the  neighborhood  of  Stockholm  or  Gottenborg,  perhaps  you 
would  like  to  remain  here.  But  enough,  only  come  home  next  sum- 
mer, breathe  the  air  of  your  native  land,  and  select  a  place  for  the  re- 
mainder of  your  life.* 

A  few  weeks  later,  on  August  5,  1863,  Kils  wrote,  saying : 

I  mentioned  in  my  last  letter  that  the  fatherland  could  not  give  you 
occupation  adequate  to  yoiu*  great  activity,  and  that  our  hopes  of  seeing 
you  settled  here  could  scarcely  be  realized.  But  the  political  move- 
ments here  in  the  North,  and  in  Europe  in  general,  may  possibly  change 
this.  The  three  northern  kingdoms,  Sweden,  Norway,  and  Denmark 
(not  forgetting  Finland)  are  coming  nearer  and  nearer  together  in  rela- 
tion to  the  subject  of  a  mutual  defence.  Three  persons  from  each  of 
these  countries  are  now  to  meet  and  to  deliberate  as  to  suitable  vessels 
for  naval  defence,  and  consider  the  subject  of  iron-clads  and  the  moni- 
tor system.  The  latest  intelligence,  as  to  the  advantages  the  United 
States  has  derived  from  the  vessels  you  have  constructed,  will  probably 
increase  the  desire  to  use  monitors  for  the  naval  defence  of  the  North. 
In  view  of  these  circumstances  I  have  concluded  to  ask  you  if  you 
would  not  find  it  as  interesting,  as  glorious,  and  satisfactory  to  appear 
as  consulting  engineer  and  constructor  for  the  na\'ies  of  the  three  king- 
doms ;  for  each  of  the  countries,  individually,  according  to  their  several 
circumstances,  and  in  general  for  all  three  in  relation  to  a  general 
system  of  defence  against  a  common  enemy.  Y'our  large  experience 
during  the  war  in  America,  and  the  experiments  the  United  States  have 
conducted  on  so  large  a  scale  in  the  use  of  iron-clads,  would  of  coui'se 
be  of  invaluable  service  to  our  States  if  you  would  devote  your  energy, 
your  ability,  and  your  experience  to  the  jiromotion  of  Scandinavian- 
ism,  in  reference  to  a  common  mutual  naval  defence.  Let  me  know  as 
soon  as  possible  how  you  view  my  proposal.  I  take  it  for  granted  that 
the  people,  as  well  as  the  governments,  of  the  different  countries  would 
be  glad  to  secure  your  person  and  your  great  abilities.  The  minor  en- 
gineers in  the  navy  of  the  several  countries  are  the  only  ones  who  would 
not  wish  to  see  you  return  to  your  native  land  and  engage  in  the  ser- 

*  Letter  from  Barou  Nils  Ericson  to  Jolm  Ericsson,  July  11,  1863. 


Ericsson's  sok  and  brother. 


211 


vice  of  Scandinavia,  as  each  of  these  is  now,  in  his  way,  an  important 
person,  and  this  importance  would  naturally  be  diminished  were  such  a 
man  as  you  to  take  the  lead.  But  we  need  a  chief  to  reconcile  varying 
opinions. 

There  is  one  thing  that  I  should  desire,  and  that  is  that  you  were 
financially  independent ;  as  in  your  case  this  would  add  to  your  reputa- 
tion and  give  a  greater  significance  to  your  recommendations.  I  don't 
mean  by  this  that  you  should  work  for  nothing.  By  no  means  ;  you 
ought  to  be  paid  well.  As  I  am  anxious  to  have  your  opinion  on  my 
project,  write  as  soon  as  you  can. 

As  to  his  financial  condition,  John  was  able  to  satisfy  his 
brother,  and  he  wrote 
December  27,  1867, 
saying  :  "  I  continue  as 
usual  with  new  me- 
chanical works  and 
new  under  takings, 
without  involving  my 
own  means  though — 
rich  men  offer  me  read- 
ily necessary  means  for 
a  share  in  the  undertak- 
ing, without  my  risking 
anything  myself.  Per- 
haps I  am  the  only  en- 
gineer whose  word  is 
sufficient  to  make  cap- 


The  Giant  and  the  Dwarfs  ;  or,  John  E.   and  the  Little 
Mariners. 

[From  a  Swedish  caricature,  February  10,  1867.] 


John. — Come  here,  little  boys,  and  I  will  show  you. 

..    T    ,  p  ,  What  do  you  say  about  this  model  of  a  gunboat  for  our 

itallStS  compete  tor  the  coast  defence  ? 

J  -  ,  The  Little  Boys. — Won't  do  ;   too  small  ;     .    .    . 

advantage  or  venturing  too  heavy  draught;   .    .    .    too  large  guns ;    ...    too 

, ,     .  ,    •     1  light  draught ;     .    .    .    too  large  ;     .    .    .    too  small 

their  money  on  untried  guns ;     .    .    .     won't   do— that's  what  I  say ;     .    .    . 

-,^-r,  and  I  also — because  it  isn't  oj<r  invention. 
inventions.    .    .    .     VV  lien        John.— Well,  little  boys,  that  is  at  least  some  reason. 

you  are  questioned  re- 
garding my  financial  condition  you  can  say  that  your  brother 
is  rich,  as  his  income  last  year,  consisting  almost  entirely  of 
interest,  amounted  to  75,000  crowns  [something  over  $20,000], 
according  to  the  present  rate  of  exchange,  but  in  reality  amount- 
ing to  100,000.  In  a  word,  when  I  some  day  decide  to  go 
home,  my  baggage  will  consist,  in  addition  to  other  things,  of 
fifty  or  sixty  tunnor  of  gold."* 

"■  Old  Swedish  way  of  counting  money. 


212  LIFE   OF   .TOnX   ERICSSON. 

For  other  reasons,  however,  the  proposition  to  transfer 
John  to  Scandinavia  was  not  favorably  entertained,  and  li3  was 
at  the  time  in  the  midst  of  liis  arduous  labors  for  furnishing 
the  United  States  with  an  iron-clad  navy.  He  was  wise,  in 
any  event,  not  to  accept  such  an  invitation.  Seven  years  later 
Mr.  Forbes  said : 

"  I  have  long  thought  you  ought  to  be  supreme  dictator 
and  monitor  over  all  of  Uncle  Sam's  machinery ;  but,  if  in  a 
moment  of  sanity  you  should,  by  something  little  short  of  a 
miracle,  get  there,  your  independent,  go-ahead  character  would 
make  so  niany  enemies  among  the  pigmies  tliat  they  would 
bind  you  down  hand  and  foot,  as  the  Lilliputians  did  Gulliver, 
and  worry  you  to  death." 

This  would  have  been  the  inevitable  result  of  appointing 
Ericsson  at  any  time  to  a  position  for  which  he  was  otherwise 
beyond  all  men  best  fitted. 

"When  Nils  Ericsson  received  his  title  he  altered  the  spell- 
ing of  his  name  and  became  Baron  Ericson.  Tliis  chancre  gave 
great  offence  to  John,  as  is  shown  by  an  atrabilious  letter  such 
as  we  find  occasional  examples  of  in  his  correspondence. 

New  York,  May  20,  1864 
Mt  Dear  Brother  :  To  judge  from  Connt  ManJerstran's  remark,  it 
would  appear  that  he  forgets  that  those  he  describes  as  the  special  fa- 
vorites of  fortune  are  united  only  in  the  sound  of  their  names.  It  is 
strange  that  this  change  of  name,  followed  by  disunion  among  the  rela- 
tives, should  have  created  less  sensation  in  Sweden  than  abroad.  Mv 
enemies  here  and  in  Sweden  said,  even  before  I  knew  anything  of  the 
matter,  that  "  the  rich  Swedish  engineer  "  so  disliked  the  relationship 
that  he  called  himself  Ericson  to  avoid  being  taken  for  a  kinsman.  I 
can  never  forget  the  unpleasantness  caused  me  by  this  annulling  of  re- 
lationship. Possibly  your  wife  has  had  her  share  in  it.  If  so,  she  will 
find  some  day  that  the  blotted-out  letter  will  cost  her  children  half  a 
million.  Of  all  the  blunders  and  mistakes  you  have  made  in  respect  to 
your  brother,  this  alteration  of  the  name  is  the  most  inexplicable  and 
vain.  I  consider  it  a  practical  gain  that  you  have  become  a  member  of 
the  Diet,  but  your  heirs  will  have  occasion  to  regret  that  you  altered 
your  father's  and  brother's  name. 

Tell  Carl  that  when  I  wrote  to  him  to  Paris,  I  had  not  received  his 
last  letter  informing  me  of  his  last  misfortune  in  Meiico.  Your  plan  of 
sending  him  here  you  have  not  well  considered.  What  would  he  do 
here  ?    See  unpolished  luxury  and  bad  morals,  and  possibly  be  initiated 


Ericsson's  son  and  brother.  213 

in  vice  ?  Nothing  is  to  be  learned  here,  and  so  far  as  I  am  concerned, 
I  could  not  give  him  an  hour  a  month  of  my  time.  I  live  in  my  work- 
room, and  must  not  be  disturbed.  I  have  still  a  whole  fleet  to  construct 
before  I  can  take  a  rest. 

Your  affectionate  brother, 

J.  Ericsson. 

For  some  years  the  brothers  had  not  corresponded,  and  the 
tone  of  the  letters  following  a  renewal  of  interrupted  intercourse, 
indicates  that  John  felt  that  other  reasons  than  excess  of  occu- 
pation could  in  part  account  for  his  brother's  seeming  neglect 
of  him.  The  misunderstanding  in  families  resulting  from  the 
changes  that  fortune  makes  in  the  relation  of  those  born  to 
an  equal  estate,  and  from  the  foreign  alliances  of  marriage,  are 
unfortunately  too  common  to  require  explanation.  Alienation 
in  this  case  did  not  go  beyond  a  surface  irritation,  and  John's 
letter  is  to  be  taken  only  as  an  illustration  of  that  habit  of 
thinking  aloud  in  which  relatives  are  privileged  to  indulge  one 
with  another.  He  was  morbidly  sensitive  on  some  points,  and 
it  was  not  his  habit  to  conceal  his  opinions.  The  conciliatory 
letter  Nils  sent  in  reply  was  an  illustration  of  his  difference  of 
temperament. 

Nils  had  shown  his  good-will  by  furnishing  the  means  for 
educating  the  son  John  left  behind  him  when  he  departed 
from  Sweden  in  1826.  Now  that  John  was  independent  in  his 
circumstances,  his  brother  suggested  that  a  repayment  for  his 
advances  would  be  of  great  service  in  helping  him  out  of  some 
pecuniary  difficulties,  and  a  draft  for  the  amount  named,  10,- 
000  crowns,  was  at  once  sent  by  John.  In  his  letter  asking  for 
the  money,  Nils  said  :  "Your  son  Iljalmar  has  left  the  corps  of 
engineers,  and  is  now  superintendent  of  the  state  railways,  is  a 
knight  of  the  orders  of  Vasa  and  Nordsjerna  [Polar  Star],  an 
able  and  most  intelligent  man."  In  another  letter  acknowledg- 
ing the  receipt  of  the  money  sent,  dated  January  6,  1866,  he 
said  further : 

Your  son  Hjalmar  is  now  on  his  travels  abroad  for  the  purpose  of 
studying  foreign  railways  and  their  equipment.  I  did  not  see  him  be- 
fore he  started,  but  siai:)pose  that  the  Administration  of  our  extensive 
railways  want  a  chef  for  the  materials  and  machinery,  and  have  selected 
Hjalmar  for  this  important  office.     I  enclose  a  letter  from  him  to  show 


214  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

you  that  he  now  knows  that  it  is  to  his  father,  and  not  to  his  uncle,  that 
he  is  indebted  for  his  education.  I  informed  him  of  the  fact  after  you 
had  paid  your  debt  to  me. 

Ericsson's  son  was  known  as  Hjalraar  El  worth,  though  he 
had  been  accepted  as  a  member  of  his  father's  family  in  Swe- 
den. There  was  no  direct  intercourse  between  father  and  son 
until  lljiilmar  was  forty-eight  years  old.  Then  he  wrote  this 
letter  to  his  father : 

November  22,  1872, 

Mt  Deab  Father  :  "When  I  now,  at  the  age  of  forty-eight,  for  the 
first  time  call  you  father,  it  is  with  a  gi-ateful  heart  for  all  you  have 
done  for  me.  I  have  long  before  this  wanted  to  write  to  you,  and  asked 
Uncle  Nils  about  it,  but  he  did  not  think  I  ought  to  do  it,  so  long  as 
you  tiid  not  write  to  me.  The  reason  why  I  write  now  is  that  I  have  re- 
ceived an  essay  containing  a  convincing  answer  to  Pater  Secchi's  doubts 
as  to  the  accuracy  of  the  apparatus  for  measuring  the  sun  heat,  which 
essay  was  sent  from  New  York  on  October  2Gth,  and  arrived  here  on  my 
birthday,  the  16th  of  this  month.  I  do  not  think  anybody  but  you 
could  have  sent  it,  and  I  look  upon  it  as  a  letter,  though  a  few  written 
lines  from  you  would  naturally  have  made  me  happier. 

Concerning  my  present  position,  I  want  to  tell  you  that  I  am  director- 
general  of  the  railways,  at  a  salary  of  6,000  crowns.  Of  this  one-quar- 
ter goes  to  a  pension  fund,  life  insurance,  and  taxes,  so  that  about 
4,500  remains.  This  is  certainly  not  much,  but  my  dear  little  wife  man- 
ages so  well  that  it  is  enough  for  our  wants,  especially  as  we  have  no 
children.  I  do  not  wish  to  be  further  promoted,  as  the  chefs  are  not  so 
well  paid  as  they  ought  to  be,  and  consequently,  nobody  but  a  man  who 
has  a  private  income  can  accept  such  a  place. 

I  should  like  to  know  of  a  good  construction  of  snow-ploughs  for  lo- 
comotives. "We  often  have,  especially  in  January  and  February,  heavy 
snow-stonns,  and  I  have  introduced  a  plough  for  removing  the  snow 
after  a  model  I  saw  during  my  stay  in  Austria,  1866.  These  are  very 
well  for  drifts  of  5-6  feet,  but  when  the  snow  masses  become  larger, 
shovelling  is  needed,  which  causes  a  loss  of  time.  It  would  be  of  great 
interest  to  me  to  have  some  details  of  the  sun  motor. 

If  you  would  answer  this  letter  and  let  me  know  something  about 
you,  it  would  make  me  veiy  happy. 

"Fr.TAT.MAR. 

This  mingling  of  sentiment  and  business  shows  that  Hjal- 
mar  was  the  son  of  his  father.  The  answer  to  his  letter  is  not 
to  be  found.  That  it  was  satisfactory  appears  from  the  fact 
that  the   correspondence    thus  opened    was    continued    until 


eeicsson's  son  and  brother.  215 

fljal mar's  death,  in  1887.  In  1876  be  was  sent  bj  bis  Govern- 
ment as  a  Commissioner  from  Sweden  to  tbe  Centennial  Expo- 
sition in  Philadelphia.  lie  visited  his  father  and  received  from 
him  friendly  attention,  and  letters  of  introduction,  carrying  liim 
wherever  he  wished  to  go.  Yet  the  intercourse  seems  to  have 
been  to  some  extent  formal,  for  on  June  6,  1876,  the  son  wrote : 

Philadelphia,  June  6,  1876. 
Mt  Deak  Father:  Next  Friday  I  intend  visiting  the  Schools  in 
New  York,  and  will,  therefore,  ask  you  to  send  Mr.  Taylor  to  me  to 
Everett  House,  at  9  in  tbe  morning.  If  you  would  grant  me  half  an 
hour's  interview  before  my  departure  in  the  evening,  I  should  be  very 
thankful,  and  in  that  case  would  you  let  Mi-.  Taylor  tell  me  the  time 
when  you  can  receive  me  ? 

Your  aflfect.  Son, 

Hjalmab. 

Tbe  first  letter  I  have  been  able  to  find,  addressed  by  Erics- 
son to  bis  son,  is  this  : 

New  York,  July  2,  1876. 
My  Dear  Hjalmar  :   In  case  you  would  Uke  to  start  for  the  West 
at  once,  I  enclose  a  letter  of  recommendation  which  undoubtedly  will 
give  you  an  o^jportunity  to  see  and  examine  all  you  want.     My  letters  of 
recommendation  have  always  given  the  bearer  entrance  everywhere. 

You  know  that  I,  through  Taylor,  have  given  a  copy  of  the  "Cen- 
tennial "  pamjDhlet  to  the  correspondent  of  the  Nyar  Baglijt  Allehanda. 
Your  proposed  letter  to  that  paper  will  thus  be  unnecessary. 

With  great  affection, 

J.  Ericsson. 

Upon  Hjalmar's  return  to  Sweden,  his  father  wrote,  Novem- 
ber 2,  1877,  saying :  "  My  fatherland  and  all  concerning  it 
(allow  me  to  remind  you  of  it)  interests  me  tenfold  more  than 
what  is  going  on  in  America." 

Ericsson's  correspondence  with  his  son  was  chiefly  devoted 
to  the  discussion  of  his  projects  for  defending  Sweden,  and  for 
publishing  a  Swedish  translation  of  his  "  Contributions  to  the 
Centennial  Exhibition." 

To  Hjalmar's  suggestion  that  his  father  should  tone  down 
some  of  the  energetic  expressions  in  this  work,  Ericsson  an- 
swered that  this  proposition  "makes  me  the  more  content  not 
to  have  my  work  published  in  Sweden.     You  say  one  shouM 


216  LIFE   OF   .IOII^'   ERICSSON. 

be  '  mild  in  words  when  strong  in  deeds.'  To  tliis  I  onlj 
answer  that  the  hammer  is  my  weapon,  and  if  I  had  not 
understood  how  to  handle  it  rightly,  I  should  long  ago  liave 
been  in  the  poor-house :  "  thus  quoting  the  sentiment,  if  not 
the  words,  of  his  favorite  poet : 

Mighty  indeecl  is  Thor,  young  man,  wlien,  girding  tight 
His  Megingjarcl  around  his  iron  loins,  he  strikes.* 

Several  of  Ericsson's  letters  to  his  son  are  devoted  to  an 
expression  of  his  discontent,  because  one  of  his  relatives  would 
insist  upon  occupying  himself  with  inventions  for  whicli  he 
had  no  proper  training  or  capacity.  Speaking  of  this  young 
man's  infatuation  with  the  idea  that  a  worthless  engine  he  had 
planned  was  a  great  discovery,  Ericsson  said  :  "  He  seems  to 
have  been  bitten  by  a  mad  engine  constructor."  Of  the  de- 
sign for  a  self-counting  machine,  sent  to  him  by  a  young 
Swedish  engineer,  he  said  :  "This  is  a  very  ingenious  inven- 
tion ;  too  ingenious,  I  fear,  to  make  a  success.  Why  did  he 
not  make  a  self-acting  broom  ?  lie  might  then  have  been  a 
millionaire  at  the  least."  When  another  young  inventor  showed 
him  a  novel  plan  for  propelling  a  steamboat,  he  dryly  remarked : 
"  It  is  possible  that  the  wheels  may  make  a  few  revolutions 
with  this  machine,  but  the  boat  would  certainly  go  better  with- 
out any  machinery  at  all." 

To  his  young  kinsman,  Ericsson  absolutely  forbade  the 
further  introduction  of  the  subject  of  that  invention.  As  some 
consolation  for  the  loss  of  prospective  fortune  supposed  to  fol- 
low his  refusal  to  assist  in  developing  it,  he  agreed  to  honor  for 
one  year  the  young  man's  monthly  draft  for  five  hundred  francs, 
on  the  single  condition  that  he  should  not  be  further  called 
upon  to  demonstrate  the  laws  of  dynamics  to  his  unwilling 
listener.  This  anecdote  illustrates  a  characteristic  of  Ericsson 
which  often  gave  him  an  undeserved  reputation  for  brusque- 
ness  and  unkindness.  The  assertion  of  a  false  mechanical  con- 
clusion jarred  upon  his  nerves  as  a  false  note  upon  the  musical 
ear  of  an  expert,  or  an  inharmonious  blending  of  colors  upon 
the  eye  of  an  artist. 

*  Tegner's  Frithiof  Saga.     "  Megingjard,"  Thor's  belt  of  strength. 


Ericsson's  son  and  beothek.  217 

lu  1887  came  the  announcement  that  Hjalmar  was  suffer- 
ing seriously  from  enlargement  of  the  prostate  gland,  and 
suffering  still  more,  as  his  father  believed,  from  mistaken 
medical  treatment.  Ericsson  himself  suffered  for  a  dozen 
years  with  the  same  disorder,  and  in  connection  with  it  he 
had  studied  the  human  body  as  he  would  study  a  piece  of 
machinery.  He  was  able  to  describe  the  exact  nature  of  his 
son's  difficulty,  and  explained  to  him  how  to  deal  with  it.  His 
letter  of  advice  is  a  condensed  medical  treatise  on  the  subject, 
presented  in  the  clearest  possible  language.  It  was  not  heeded, 
and  he  wrote  again  to  say :  "  I  could  say  much  more  on  the 
subject,  but  you  are,  unfortunately,  so  conceited  that  advice  is 
useless.  You  can  also  be  rude  to  him  who  gives  you  advice, 
for  the  contents  of  my  letter  of  August  6th  were,  as  it  seems, 
not  important  enough  to  be  mentioned.  I  was  not  even 
thanked  for  my  kindness.  All  of  this  I  complain  of  from  my 
heart,  because  the  doctor's  stupid  treatment,  which  your  wis- 
dom approves  of,  has  made  a  cure  seem  very  distant,  if  possi- 
ble at  all.  Your  complaint  was  originally  of  a  simple  mechan- 
ical nature,  easy  to  conquer  by  simple  mechanical  means.  If 
you  had  sought  my  advice  in  time  you  would  now  have  been  as 
well  and  strong  as  formerly." 

This  letter  shows  Ericsson's  attitude  toward  those  he 
sought  to  aid.  His  experience,  his  knowledge,  his  ability  were 
at  their  service,  and  his  purse  as  well,  but  his  treatment  of 
them  was  imperious.  He  had  unusual  capacity  for  mastering 
any  subject  within  the  range  of  his  observation  ;  he  studied  it 
thoroughly  ;  he  reached  the  most  positive  conclusions  concern- 
ing it,  and  he  demanded  submission  to  these  conclusions  as  to 
the  authority  of  an  autocrat.  His  speech  was  direct,  his  spirit 
was  kindly,  and  his  disposition  most  generous,  but  his  experi- 
ence in  matters  of  sentiment  was  limited,  and  he  was  not  one 
of  those  "who  feels  the  hearts  of  all  men  in  his  breast,  and 
knows  their  strength  or  weakness  through  his  own."  To  his 
daughter-in-law  he  wrote,  on  hearing  of  her  husband's  death : 

My  Dear  Sophie  :  The  account,  in  your  letter  of  May  25th,  concern- 
ing Hjalmar's  dreadful  state,  was  painful  beyond  description.  I  received, 
therefore,  the  telegram  that  afterward  came  from  Baron  Ericson  with 
more  satisfaction  than  grief,  as  death  alone  could  ease  your  husband's 


218 


LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 


pains.  His  constitution  was  evidently  completely  destroyed  by  phy- 
sicians' ignorance  and  his  own  senselessness.  The  fact  is  that  your 
husband,  who  was  an  unusually  strong  man,  was  simply  murdered  by 
ignorance. 

Please  give  my  thanks  to  your  sister  for  her  clear  account  of  the 


Hjalmar  Elworth,   Son  of  John  Ericsson. 

funeral.     Grand  funerals  are  objectionable  in  my  opinion,  but  in  this 
case  it  was  friendship  that  arranged  the  unnecessary  pomp. 
Your  affectionate  friend, 

J.  Ebicsson. 


"When  Ericsson  suffered  from  his  son's  disorder  he  engaged  a 
physician  to  come  in  for  half  an  hour  each  day,  for  a  year,  and 
talk  with  him.     In  this  way  he  learned  how  to  take  care  of 


Ericsson's  son  and  brother.  219 

himself.  His  method  in  dealing  with  medical  men  was  to  mas- 
ter their  knowledge  of  his  particular  conditions  and  then  to  de- 
cide for  himself  what  course  of  treatment  he  would  follow.  He 
never  yielded  himself  blindly  to  the  guidance  of  professional 
advice,  as  his  son  had  done. 

Hjalmar  Elworth's  death  occurred  on  July  12,  1887.  He 
was  a  man  of  ability  and  solid  acquirements,  and  one  whose 
character  commanded  confidence  and  respect.  He  followed  in 
the  footsteps  of  his  father  and  his  uncle,  first  as  a  student  and 
then  as  a  niveleur  on  the  new  canal  works  at  Trollhattan, 
and  finally  as  a  superintendent  of  construction.  In  1850 
he  was  graduated  from  the  Swedish  Military  Academy,  and 
after  five  years'  further  service  upon  the  canal,  he  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  work  of  railway  construction,  rising  finally  to  the 
position  of  superintendent.  In  noticing  his  death,  a  Swedish 
paper  said :  "  In  the  deceased  the  state  railway  traflic  has 
suffered  a  great  loss ;  the  members  of  the  administration  are 
deprived  of  an  agreeable  associate,  and  his  subordinates  of  a 
humane  chief,  and  one  who  was  warmly  interested  in  their 
welfare." 

Ericsson  had  no  children  by  his  English  wife,  nee  Amelia 
Byam.     In  a  letter  to  his  brother  Nils,  he  said  : 

December  27,  1867. 

Aa  to  my  family  affairs,  you  can  tell  the  inquisitive  that  my  wife 
died  in  London  last  July.  But  only  to  yourself  I  will  add  .  .  . 
But  I  have  long  since  forgotten  this,  as  well  as  many  other  unpleasant 
things.  My  future,  and  my  success  in  the  world,  required  that  I  should 
not  be  troubled  with  children  or  with  a  wife  who  had  a  full  right  to  live 
with  me.  Fate,  by  means  of  this  misalliance,  made  it  possible  for  me  to 
devote  twenty-five  years  of  undivided,  undisturbed  attention  to  my  pro- 
fession, and  I  am  grateful  to  Providence,  because  if  I  had  lived  in  what 
is  called  a  happy  marriage,  I  should  not  have  gone  to  America. 

Ask  those  acquainted  with  the  matter,  why  England  and  France 
did  not  take  part  with  the  Southern  States  on  April  1,  1862,  as  was 
intended,  and  they  will  answer  you  :  Because  the  Monitoi-  saved  the 
American  Navy  from  destruction  the  9th  of  March.  It  was  the  cannon 
in  the  rotary  turret  at  Hampton  Roads  that  tore  the  fetters  from  millions 
of  slaves,  and  afterward  made  the  French  abandon  Napoleon's  project 
in  Mexico.  Consequently,  I  ask,  who  can  dispute  that  the  designer  of 
the  Monitor  has  overthrown  Napoleon's  great  plans  ? 

A  word  about  my  health  in  answer  to  your  inquii-ies.     It  soonds 


220  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

incredible,  but  I  am  able  to  work  harder  now  than  when  I  first  came  to 
this  countrv.  I  sleep  better,  have  a  better  digestion,  a  stronger  arm, 
and  do  not  suffer  from  the  least  indisposition.  I  ascribe  all  this  to  my 
wav  of  living.  I  take  a  three  miles'  walk  every  evening  before  going  to 
bed,  a  cold  bath  and  calisthenics  every  morning  before  breakfast,  and 
very  seldom  take  wine  or  any  kind  of  spirits.  That  I  never  use  tobacco 
in  any  form  I  think  is  unnecessary  to  mention.  Address  your  letters 
to  New  York,  United  States.  My  old  house  in  Franklin  Street  disap- 
peared several  years  ago. 

As  a  copy  of  this  letter  has  been  carefully  preserved  among 
Ericsson's  papers,  the  inference  would  seem  to  be  that  he  in- 
tended that  the  facts  it  records  should  at  some  time  be  revealed. 
Consideration  for  the  living  prompts  the  present  omission  of  a 
portion  of  it.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  it  explains  his  peculiar 
relations  to  his  wife,  and  shows  that  it  was  no  waywardness  of 
fancy  that  led  him  aside  from  the  quiet  paths  of  domestic  life, 
and  into  the  ways  of  solitude — "  the  nurse  of  enthusiasm,  and 
enthusiasm  is  the  true  parent  of  genius." 

Xils  responded  with  sympathy  and  affection  to  John's  ex- 
hibition of  brotherly  confidence.  In  a  long  letter  sent  in  reply 
to  the  letter  here  quoted,  he  said  :  *'  Naturally  the  care  for  your 
own  would  draw  you  early  into  the  sphere  of  daily  concerns. 
As  it  is,  you  have  been  perfectly  free,  and  able  to  devote  your- 
self exclusively  to  occupations  producing  results  that  astonish 
the  world ;  not  only  because  of  the  genius  displayed,  but  even 
more  for  the  practical  results  accomplished.  America  was  the 
country  best  suited  to  your  activities,  but  you  probably  would 
never  have  gone  there  had  your  marriage  been  a  happy  one. 
.  .  .  Xo  one  in  your  own  country  fails  to  understand  that 
your  MoJiitor  at  Hampton  Koads  not  only  turned  the  scale  in 
the  American  War,  but  determined  the  relations  of  the  Euro- 
pean powers  to  ^>orth  America." 

"With  the  family  of  his  English  wife,  Ericsson  maintained 
the  pleasantest  relations  up  to  the  time  of  his  death,  especially 
with  her  niece,  the  wife  of  General  Sir  Trevor  Chute,  of  the 
British  service,  and  with  the  brother  of  Lady  Chute,  Mr.  S.  B. 
Browning,  of  Auckland,  New  Zealand. 

Mrs.  Ericsson's  family  were  persons  of  character  and  refine- 
ment, and  her  husband's  feelin£:s  toward  them  were  shown  in  a 


Ericsson's  son  and  brother.  221 

lietter  written  in  1870,  in  which  he  says  :  "  I  cherish  the  re- 
membrance of  my  sisters  with  the  warmest  feelings  of  friend- 
ship and  affection.  Indeed,  they  are  the  dearest  friends  I  have 
left  in  England."  Speaking  of  the  recent  death  of  his  wife's 
half-sister,  one  of  Mrs.  Ericsson's  relatives  wrote,  saying:  "I 
need  scarcely  remind  you  of  the  great  regard — I  may  say  affec- 
tion— Miss  Browning  entertained  toward  yon.  She  was  never 
tired  of  talking  about  your  talent  and  wonderful  inventions." 

One  of  Ericsson's  letters  to  Lady  Chute,  dated  March  16, 
1877,  shows  that  even  at  seventy-four  he  was  not  altogether  re- 
moved from  the  vanities  of  this  world,  and  that  he  could  be 
most  gallant  on  occasion.     In  this  he  said  : 

I  am  delighted  to  learn  that  you  have  been  presented  at  court,  and 
note  parkicularly  that  a  sister  of  the  Earl  of  Dudley  introduced  you  to 
the  Queen.  As  probably  Lady  Dudley  was  present  during  the  ceremony, 
you  had  need  of  all  your  charms  on  the  occasion,  for  a  friend  of  mine, 
who  is  well  posted,  tells  me  that  she  is  considered  the  handsomest 
woman  in  England — now  do  not  be  oflfended — I  ought  to  have  said,  was 
so  considered  before  the  fair  stranger  from  the  southern  hemisphere  ap- 
peared in  the  court  galaxy.  Pray  send  for  a  photographer  before  you 
disrobe  after  having  attended  the  drawing-room  referred  to  in  your  letter. 
Accept  my  warmest  thanks  for  your  invitation  to  visit  Egmount  Bracknell. 

Within  a  few  weeks  I  shall  have  the  pleasure  of  forwarding  a  some- 
what stylish  book  enclosing  a  record  of  my  principal  works  carried  out 
on  American  soil.  I  trust  that  a  mere  glance  at  its  illustrations  will 
convince  you  that  my  claim  of  having  carried  into  practice  a  greater 
number  of  novel  ideas  than  any  other  person,  past  or  present,  is  well 
founded. 

His  mind  was  so  occupied  with  his  work  that  he  seldom 
wrote  a  letter  without  some  allusion  to  it.  In  a  letter  of  sym- 
pathy to  Lady  Chute  for  the  loss  of  friends  killed  in  India,  he 
encloses  a  cut  of  the  Destroyer — as  one  might  be  supposed  to 
bestow  a  toy  upon  an  afflicted  child  to  still  its  cries.  "  He 
gave  his  best,  could  do  no  more."  In  another  letter  he  sends  a 
picture  of  his  sun  motor,  and  acknowledges  the  receipt  of  the 
portrait  he  had  asked  for  with  this  delicate  bit  of  compliment : 
"  I  have  also  before  me  your  portrait,  a  real  treasure — a  rare 
combination  of  intelligence,  power,  and  beauty.  "Were  it  a 
drawing^  I  should  be  inclined  to  think  it  had  been  overdrawn, 
but  being  a  photograph  it  must  reflect  that  which  happily  exiflts." 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

PUBLIC   AND   PRIVATE  BENEFACTIONS 

A  Yearly  Income  of  70,000  crowns. — How  it  was  Expended. — The  Faith- 
ful Steward. — An  Aflfectionate  Son. — The  Swedi.sh  Relatives. — Cor- 
respondence with  Them. — Opposition  to  Early  Marriages. — Gener- 
osity Toward  His  Kinsmen  and  Friends. — Public  Benefactions. — 
Desires  to  be  Buried  in  Swedish  Soil. — Jemtland  Memories. — Con- 
tributions for  the  Stai-ving  Swedes. — Sympathy  with  Distress  and 
Poverty. — The  Blessings  of  the  Poor. — Attitude  toward  ■  Sturdy 
Beggars. — Discourages  Swedish  Emigration. — Romances  of  Youth. 
— ^Nobody's  Advice  Accepted. — Recognition  of  Favors  Received. — 
Treatment  of  Penny-a-liners. — An  Example  and  a  Warning. 

IN  a  letter  to  the  son  of  Nils,  written  June  13,  1871,  Erics- 
son said  : 

My  income  is  now  limited  to  about  70,000  crowns  [819,000]  a  year, 
as  I  no  longer  engage  in  any  mechanical  speculations.  I  live  on  the  in- 
terest of  my  capital,  and  this  amounts  to  about  a  million  crowns  [§270,- 
000].  I  own,  besides  some  small  property  here  of  no  great  value,  only 
about  150,000  crowns,  except  portable  pro^jerty.  As  to  my  capital, 
nothing  can  induce  me  to  touch  a  cent  of  that,  for  I  have  a  great  dread 
of  being  poor  in  my  old  age.  At  present  I  enjoy  perfect  health.  My 
investigations  concerning  the  i^ower  of  the  sun,  which  now  have  aroused 
the  attention  of  the  whole  world,  absorb  a  good  deal  of  this  interest  on 
my  money,  and  my  pensioners  take  the  rest." 

In  a  letter  written  a  year  earlier,  to  a  relative  who  made  a 
call  upon  his  bounty,  we  have  this  information : 

I  am  no  longer  doing  any  business,  but  am  now  living  oc  the  inter- 
est of  my  capital.  I  have  made  use  of  the  help  of  my  fellow-men  in 
executing  my  large  undertakings,  and  many  of  those  who  assisted  me, 
not  having  my  strong  constitution,  are  tottering  with  age,  and  not  able 
to  provide  for  themselves  and  their  families.  If  I  were  to  consider 
mere  legal  obligations,  they  have  no  claim  upon  me,  but  a  ju-st  man 
ehould  be  governed  by  a  larger  sense  of  right.     My  note-book  contains 


PUBLIC   AND   PRIVATE  BENEFACTIONS.  223 

not  only  a  list  of  such  obligations,  but  a  pension  list  of  those  before 
whom  gratitude  bows  its  bead.  Considered  with  these,  how  trifling  is 
your  claim.  But  you  must  not  conclude  from  this  that  I  have  forgotten 
you.  On  the  contraiy,  I  have  arranged  it  so  that  at  my  death  you  will 
all  enjoy  a  moderate  income.  Allow  me  to  remark  that,  as  I,  myself, 
have  worked  from  twelve  to  fourteen  hours  daily  for  fifty  years,  and 
still  continue  working,  I  cannot  imagine  how  anybody  can  feel  happy 
without  full  and  useful  occupation.  It  cannot  be  that  one  so  well 
brought  up  can  think  of  leading  an  idle  life.  Concerning  the  use  of 
my  income,  I  will  tell  you  that  the  greater  part  of  it  goes  to  meet  the 
expenses  connected  with  the  execution  of  my  great  projects  for  benefit- 
ing coming  generations,  "  What  have  you  to  do  with  coming  genera- 
tions ?  "  you  thoughtlessly  ask  me.  My  answer  is,  that  Providence  has, 
for  certain  wise  purposes,  given  me  greater  abilities  to  use  within  cer- 
tain limits  than  to  any  other  mortal,  and  I  will  be  a  faithful  steward. 

I  now  send  a  check  for  one  thousand  francs,  promising  for  the  future 
to  send  a  like  sum  every  six  months,  I  tell  you  candidly  that  this 
money  will  always  be  sent  by  me  with  the  greatest  pleasure,  and  I  hope 
you  will  accept  it  with  the  same  feeling. 

This  last  statement  was  by  way  of  apology  for  not  sending 
the  full  sura  asked  for  from  the  rich  American  relative. 

Until  his  mother's  death,  Ericsson's  intercourse  with  his 
Swedish  relatives  was  chiefly  through  correspondence  with  her. 
He  was  a  most  affectionate  son,  and  his  check-book  shows  how 
ready  he  was  to  give  substantial  proof  of  his  loving  interest  in 
his  mother's  comfort.  When  nothing  else  could  tempt  him 
from  hia  drawing-board,  he  would  turn  aside  long  enough  to 
answer  an  inquiry  coming  from  home.  The  surviving  relatives 
in  Sweden  during  the  closing  years  of  his  life  were,  besides  his 
son  Hjalmar  Elworth,  the  children  and  grandchildren  of  his 
brother  Nils,  and  of  his  sister  Caroline,  the  wife  of  Professor 
Odner.  Nils  had  three  sons,  and  a  daughter  who  had  married 
Count  Axel  Morner,  a  member  of  the  Swedish  Diet.  Two  of 
Nils's  sons  were,  with  their  father,  also  members  of  the  Diet ; 
the  eldest,  John,  the  inheritor  of  his  father's  title  of  Baron,  and 
"Werner,  the  second  son.  Both  of  these  also  held  commissions 
in  the  Army  and  took  part  in  the  Schleswig-IIolstein  war,  to 
assist  the  Danes  in  their  efforts  to  prevent  the  transfer  of  this 
province  to  Prussia,  The  youngest  son,  Carl,  after  service  as 
a  lieutenant  in  the  Yestgota  regiment  and  as  an  oiRcer  on  the 
staff  of  King  Charles  XV.,  distinguished  himself  under  Mar* 


224  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

shal  Bazaine  in  Mexico,  carrying  borne  with  him  to  Sweden 
the  scars  of  active  service  in  the  field. 

To  his  sister  in  Sweden,  Mrs.  Odner,  Ericsson  gave  a  com- 
fortable liome,  and  the  proceeds  of  his  caloric  patent  in  that 
country,  amounting  to  a  very  considerable  yearly  income. 
"  Such  a  good  brother  as  you,''  wrote  the  grateful  sister,  '*  is 
not  to  be  found  in  the  whole  world."  On  August  16,  1S70,  he 
wrote  to  Mrs.  Odner's  daughter,  saying:  '^  It  is  with  the  deep- 
est sorrow  that  I  learn  that  your  mother  is  not  expected  to  live. 
Give  her  the  best  love  of  her  affectionate  brother,  who  now 
seeks  consolation  in  your  assurance  that  sister  is  calm  and  re- 
signed to  the  will  of  God.  From  a  letter  from  John,  received 
at  the  same  time  with  yours,  I  learn  with  great  joy  that  there  are 
hopes  that  brother  Nils  will  be  restored  to  health.  God  be  with 
you  all."  A  few  weeks  later,  on  October  25, 1S70,  Captain  Erics- 
son, in  a  letter  to  his  nephew  John,  said  :  "  The  news  that  I  no 
longer  have  a  brother  was  indeed  a  severe  blow  ;  it  pained  me  all 
the  more  as  I  had  received  only  a  fortnight  before  the  informa- 
tion that  my  sister  had  been  laid  in  her  grave.  The  thought  of 
their  sufferings  presents  itself  constantly  to  me,  and  is  in  the 
highest  degree  painful." 

To  his  sister's  daughter  he  said :  ''  Tell  me  candidly  what 
seems  best  to  you  for  the  future,  and  I  will  do  what  I  can  to 
assist  you.  Let  me  know  what  sum  you  would  like  me  to  give 
you  every  six  months."  He  gave  directions  that  the  money 
received  from  the  caloric  engine  patent  should  be  devoted  to 
the  education  of  his  sister's  grandchildren,  and  in  addition 
made  an  allowance  of  3,000  francs  to  her  unmarried  daughters. 

Letters  to  his  nieces  followed  at  intervals  during  the  suc- 
ceeding years.  With  one  goes  the  announcement  that  '*  L'ncle 
John  "  makes  the  young  people  happy  with  the  gift  of  a  piano, 
and  nearly  all  the  other  letters  accompany  presents  or  semi- 
annual remittance  to  sweeten  the  advice  or  criticism  he  some- 
times gave,  and  '*  for  which  small  thanks  is  still  the  market 
price.''  Having  in  mind,  perhaps,  liis  own  experience  in  early 
youth,  "  Uncle  John ''  expresses  his  regret  that  a  Jiephew  and 
niece  were  engaged  to  be  married  at  too  early  an  age,  saying : 
''  The  custom  of  early  betrothals,  followed  by  a  change  of  mind 
resulting  from  altered  circumstances,  and  new  acquaintance, 


PUBLIC   AND   PRIVATE   BENEFACTIONS,  225 

prevails  in  ray  dear  country  now  as  foniierly."  "  Early  mar- 
riages," he  sagely  says  in  another  letter,  "  bring  large  families 
and  great  trouble."  Writing  to  his  niece  concerning  Ixevjiance, 
he  said  : 

"  I  can  well  imagine  that  it  is  '  hard,'  as  you  say,  to  be  sepa- 
rated so  long  from  your  intended,  but  there  is  one  cure  for  the 
pain  that  follows  longing,  and  that  is  useful  occupation.  As  I 
take  it  for  granted  that  j^ou  use  the  needle  with  the  same  skill 
as  the  pen,  I  enclose  a  check  for  £30.  Buy  with  the  money 
what  is  necessary  for  your  house  of  such  things  as  require  to 
be  worked  with  the  needle,  and  while  j'ou  are  stitching  time 
will  fly,  and  before  your  work  is  half  finished  Clas  will  be 
back." 

To  such  of  his  relatives  as  needed  his  good  offices,  his  gen- 
erosity was  unceasing  during  the  last  twenty  years  of  his  life, 
and  he  showed  the  most  sympathetic  interest  in  their  affairs. 
The  years  that  divided  between  him  and  his  early  youth  in 
Yermland  seem  to  have  disappeared  from  recollection,  and  he 
was  once  more  at  home  with  his  kin.  To  a  married  niece  he 
writes,  asking  her  to  tell  him  all  about  her  children,  their  pro- 
gress in  intellectual  and  bodily  development,  and  sends  the 
"  usual  half-yearly  allowance."  To  another  who  is  about  to  be 
married,  he  gives  a  wedding  present  of  1,500  francs,  with  warm 
congratulations  on  her  choice,  and  a  complimentary  reference 
to  an  essay  published  by  the  bridegroom.  To  a  third  he  says, 
"  I  have  now  before  me  the  pictures  of  your  three  sweet  chil- 
dren. It  has  given  me  pleasure  to  look  at  these  images  of 
innocence  and  J03\" 

To  his  great-nephew  who  boasted  of  his  skill  as  a  hunter  he 
wrote  :  "  Allow  me  to  say  that  hunting  as  a  pastime  is  inconsis- 
tent with  a  high  degree  of  cultivation,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
so  many  royal  persons  love  it.  The  butcher  kills  the  animal  in- 
stantly, without  torture  ;  the  hunter  generally  wounds  his  vic- 
tim and  leaves  it  to  die  in  great  pain.  That  a  thinking,  hu- 
mane person  can  find  pleasure  in  such  a  pastime  is  incredible. 
Gymnastics  strengthen  and  develop  the  body  much  more  than 
bunting,  and  take  less  time." 

In  1863  Ericsson  received  a  call  for  help  from  an  old  lady 
of  eighty-three,  who  in  earlier  years  had  been  married  to  his 
Vol.  II.— 15 


226  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

father's  brother,  Eric  Ericsson,  and  after  Eric's  death  had  re- 
married and  been  for  a  second  time  widowed.  Slie  wrote  that 
she  was  thus  left  in  very  straitened  circumstances.  This  was 
one  of  the  busiest  periods  of  Ericsson's  life,  yet  he  found  time 
for  an  immediate  and  cordial  response,  saying  : 

Mt  Deab  ArxT :  It  moved  me  deeply  to  find  from  vour  letter  of  July 
30th,  which  I  received,  that  you  have  been  unjustly  treated,  and  conse- 
quently find  yourself  in  distress  for  money.  It  is  with  the  greatest  pleas- 
ure I  obey  my  aunt's  demand,  and  now,  to  begin  with,  enclose  a  check 
for  300  crowns.  Write  and  tell  me  how  much  you  need  a  year,  and  I 
will  for  the  future  send  the  amount.  Eric  Eiicsson's  former  wife  must 
not  suffer  want. 

Your  affectionate,  J.  Ericsson. 

Other  letters  followed  at  intervals  in  the  same  vein.  To  a 
gift  of  flowers  from  the  grateful  old  lady,  the  nephew  replied  : 

Mt  Dear  Aunt  :  My  heartiest  thanks  for  the  Swedish  flowers  you 
were  kind  enough  to  send  me.  That  the  sight  of  these  flowers  from 
my  native  land  recalled  many  dear  recollections,  I  need  not  say ;  and 
that  my  eye  has  not  rested  on  a  Swedish  flower  since  I  left  my  beloved 
Sweden  is  also  the  case.  I  send  you  now,  through  Messrs.  Tottie  & 
Arfoerson,  300  crowns,  which  sum  I  hope  you  will  have  before  Christ- 
mas.    My  best  wishes  for  a  happy  Christmas. 

Your  affectionate,  J.  Ericsson. 

Again  he  wrote : 

Mt  Dear  AfNT  :  I  enclose  with  great  pleasure  a  check  for  300 
crowns,  hoping  it  will  reach  you  in  good  health.  I  find  from  your  let- 
ter that  you  are  still  attached  to  life,  and  don't  complain  of  all  the 
changes.  "With  the  best  wishes  for  your  welfare  during  the  winter,  and 
that  the  coming  spring  will  find  you  in  good  health,  I  remain, 
Your  affectionate, 

J.  Ericsson. 
I  hope  when  summer  comes  you  will  let  me  hear  from  you  again. 

Ericsson's  giving  was  not  a  mere  weak  yielding  to  persua- 
sion, or  a  good-natured  indifference  to  money,  llow  carefully 
he  considered  the  necessity  for  his  gifts,  and  with  what  excel- 
lent judgment  he  directed  them,  is  shown  by  his  letters. 

Besides  generous  frifts  to  relatives  and  friends,  he  contrib- 
uted liberally,  in  the  days  of  his  prosperity,  to  public  objects  ia 


PUBLIC   AND   PRIVATE   BENEFACTIONS.  227 

Sweden.  Out  of  the  first  profits  of  his  monitor  contracts  he  sent 
a  thousand  crowns,  in  September,  1862,  to  aid  in  the  erection 
of  a  monument  to  Charles  XII. ;  the  Yesterland  poor  received 
five  hundred  dollars  a  year  later ;  and  soon  after,  the  same 
amount  was  bestowed  upon  the  sufferers  by  the  fire  at  Carlstad, 
Yermland,  where  his  father,  Olof  Ericsson,  received  his  educa- 
tion. How  prompt  he  was  in  his  response  to  requests  coming 
from  Sweden  is  shown  by  this  copy  of  a  cable  message,  sent 
February  16, 1886,  in  reply  to  a  letter  from  the  librarian  of  the 
Royal  Library,  Stockholm. 

Letter  received — I  remit  with  pleasure  fifteen  thousand  franca  to  en- 
able you  to  purchase,  for  the  Royal  Library,  Baron  Djarklus's  valuable 
collection  of  eight  thousand  books,  besides  numerous  written  documents. 
Draft  to  your  order  for  said  amount  will  be  forwarded  at  once. 

To  the  grateful  librarian's  letter  of  thanks  he  answered : 

It  is  very  satisfactory  to  learn  that  you  are  pleased  with  the  collec- 
tion of  old  books.  It  is  quite  enough  for  me  to  learn  that  many  of  the 
works  were  even  more  interesting  than  you  expected  ;  so  no  more  need 
be  said  on  this  subject.  It  is  with  great  pleasure  I  find  that  certain 
editors,  in  Stockholm  and  elsewhere,  have  found  reason  for  saying  some- 
thing in  my  favor,  on  July  31st  [his  eighty-third  birthday].  It  pleases 
me  especially  that  they  know  how  warmly  I  love  Sweden. 

A  word  as  to  this.  The  Secretary  of  the  Military  Academy,  in  a  let- 
ter to  me,  acknowledging  the  receipt  of  certain  documents  I  sent  relat- 
ing to  my  works,  considered  it  appropriate  to  say  something  flattering 
about  my  new  country.  To  this  I  briefly  replied  that  I  knew  but  one 
fatherland,  and  that  I  would  rather  that  my  ashes  reposed  under  a  heap 
of  gravel  there,  than  beneath  the  stateliest  monument  in  this  country. 

►, 

When  Baron  John  Ericson  was  transferred  to  Ostersund 
as  the  Governor  of  the  Swedish  province  of  Jemtland — where 
his  uncle  had  passed  his  youthful  career  as  an  officer  of  the 
Swedish  army — and  of  the  province  of  Ilerjedalen,  he  wrote  : 

In  Jemtland  your  memory  is  still  cherished.  I  think  I  have  been 
told  in  fifty  different  places  in  the  province:  "Your  uncle  has  lived 
here,"  and  not  to  disappoint  them  I  never  express  my  doubts.  They 
have  also  shown  me  a  number  of  little  things  as  having  belonged  to 
you,  and  if  they  all  had  been  your  property,  you  would  have  needed  all 
the  different  lodgings. 


228  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

Helics  of  John  Ericsson  were  among  the  choicest  of  Swed- 
ish possessions.  August  22,  1864,  Count  von  Rosen  wrote  that 
the  Royal  Library  had  made  application  for  some  treasm-es  in 
liis  possession  ;  Ericsson's  appointment  as  lieutenant,  his  resig- 
nation as  captain,  the  only  copy  of  his  canal  drawings,  his 
green  uniform  plumes,  and  some  papers.  ''Your  dear  face," 
his  sister  wrote,  ''  is  seen  on  cigar-boxes,  candy,  and  mosaic 
cards,  among  other  celebrities." 

In  answer  to  an  application  from  his  nephew  for  a  likeness, 
Ericsson  said  :  "  There  is  no  portrait  of  me  in  America,  but 
there  is  one  in  the  Patent  Museum  in  London,  painted  from  life 
by  the  lute  renowned  American  artist,  Elliot.  I  think  there  is 
also  a  copy  of  it  in  England,  but  I  am  not  sure  of  it.  I  send 
here  the  copy  of  the  only  true  likeness  of  me.  This  photo- 
graph was  taken  some  years  ago,  but  I  am  so  little  changed 
that  all  my  friends  say  that  it  still  resembles  me.  It  is  neces- 
sary to  remark  that  my  hair  and  whiskers  are  dark  brown, 
thanks  to  the  progress  art  has  made  in  our  time.  Xothing  can 
now  induce  me  to  have  my  likeness  taken." 

"Wlien,  in  1867,  a  terrible  famine  afflicted  parts  of  Sweden, 
Ericsson's  generosity  was  without  stint.  Contributions  were 
solicited  from  all  countries,  and  out  of  a  total  of  nearly  half  a 
million  crowns,  the  gifts  from  the  United  States  amounted  to 
$5,620.  Of  this  Ericsson  gave  all  but  the  odd  twenty  dol- 
lars, promptly  sending  a  draft  for  £1,120,  or  20,216  Swedish 
crowns.  It  was  no  perfunctory  gift ;  his  heart  went  with  it. 
A  Swedish  traveller,  who  visited  him  at  this  time,  tells  how  his 
voice  choked,  and  tears  filled  his  eyes,  as  he  spoke  of  the  dis- 
tress in  his  native  land  in  tones  that  thrilled  the  listener.  "It 
was  like  an  orator  electric  with  inspiration,  or  a  volcano  seeth- 
ing with  internal  fires."  "With  wise  forethought  he  stipu- 
lated that  his  gift  should  be  devoted  to  the  purchase  of  barley 
seed  for  distribution  among  the  poor  farmers  of  Xorrland, 
choosing  this  as  the  grain  best  adapted  to  their  soil  and  other 
conditions.  "  In  case  the  sum  should  not  be  sufficient  to 
])ay  the  freight,''  he  said,  in  sending  his  munificent  contri- 
bution, a  fortune  in  Swedish  eyes,  "  the  relief  committee  is 
hereby  authorized  to  draw  a  bill  on  me  at  sight  to  meet  the 
deficiency."     lie  urged  that  supplies  be  sent  forward  without 


PUBLIC   AND   PRIVATE   BENEFACTIONS.  229 

delay,  lest  the  frozen  sea  should  shut  out  approach,  and  added, 
"  Let  us  not  be  content  with  giving  assurances  that  life  can  be 
sustained  on  herbs  not  intended  by  nature  for  the  food  of  human 
beings.  Bags  of  meal  will  be  more  welcome  among  the  unfor- 
tunates than  good  advice  as  to  gathering  coral-moss  for  winter 
food." 

Ericsson  had  contributed  on  previous  occasions  to  meet 
similar  but  lesser  emergencies,  and  the  extent  of  this  disaster 
touched  him  profoundly.  To  an  inquiry  from  Captain  Fox  as  to 
the  famine,  he  answered,  !November  25,  1867  ; 

The  famine-stricken  provinces  are  part  of  Jemtland  and  Wester- 
norrland,  and  the  whole  of  Westerbotten  and  Norrbotten,  beginning  at 
the  63d  parallel  and  extending  100  miles  beyond  the  Arctic  circle. 
Throughout  the  whole  of  this  region,  covering  an  area  of  more  than 
50,000  square  miles,  the  crops  have  entirely  failed,  the  frost  having 
completely  destroyed  the  grain  ;  the  wretched  inhabitants  being  there- 
fore not  only  destitute  of  bread,  but  of  seed  for  next  spring.  It  must 
not  be  inferred  from  this  utter  destitution  and  want  that  the  people  of 
Northern  Sweden  lack  thrift,  or  omit  to  prepare  for  bad  harvests.  The 
fact  is,  that  the  ill-fated  region  alluded  to  has  suffered  from  bad  har- 
vests six  years  in  succession.  Hence,  the  calamity  of  a  complete  failure 
during  the  seventh  year  has  overtaken  the  people  when  utterly  exhausted 
by  previous  efforts  to  bear  up  under  their  misfortune.  True  to  the  hu- 
mane custom  of  the  inhabitants  of  those  inhospitable  regions,  mutu- 
al relief  has  been  given,  until  now  the  entire  population  stand  in  need 
of  that  speedy  assistance,  without  which  thousands  will  perish  during 
the  coming  winter.  Unfortunately,  Sweden  was  never  less  able  to  af- 
ford the  relief  called  for  than  at  present.  The  harvest  in  many  of  the 
central  provinces  has  proved  almost  a  failure,  while  the  commerce  of 
the  kingdom  is  in  a  very  unsatisfactory  state,  in  consequence  of  a  suc- 
cession of  indifferent  harvests  and  the  rapidly  decreasing  demands  by 
foreign  nations,  of  the  products  of  the  iron  mines  and  the  forests,  which 
formerly  enriched  Sweden. 

This  contribution  to  Sweden  was  only  an  enlargement  of  a 
stream  that  flowed  continuously.  The  spectacle  of  distress 
and  poverty  was  one  that  always  moved  the  heart  of  Ericsson. 
His  own  wants  were  simple,  and  his  personal  expenditures 
were  less  than  his  benefactions. 

It  was  the  standing  rule  in  his  house  that  no  one  who  ap- 
plied for  food  should  be  turned  away  empty.     He  would  send 


230  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

into  the  street  for  a  bare-legged  boj,  whose  appearance  attracted 
his  attention  on  a  cold  day,  and  after  a  pleasant  chat  direct  that 
the  lad  be  taken  to  the  nearest  shop  and  fitted  with  shoes  and 
stockings.  "  Still,''  as  he  remarked  npon  one  occasion,  "  when  I 
was  that  boy's  age  I  enjoyed  running  around  in  the  cold,  bare- 
footed." To  the  poor  and  the  friendless,  or  to  the  disabled 
workman  who  came  under  his  notice,  he  was  always  the  kind 
friend  and  adviser,  and  his  solicitude  as  to  the  exhaustion  of  the 
coal-supply  of  the  universe  never  went  so  far  as  to  lead  him 
to  refuse  to  fill  the  empty  coal-bins  of  the  distressed  widows 
of  his  neighborhood.  The  opinion  of  him  entertained  by  his 
neighbors  was  shown  during  the  draft  riots  of  1863,  when  a 
messenger  came  from  the  nearest  engine-house  to  say  "  if  the 
old  man  had  any  use  for  the  boys  they  are  at  his  service." 
The  stalwart  Swede,  if  the  occasion  had  offered,  would,  with- 
out the  help  of  others,  have  given  any  reasonable  number  of 
rioters  occasion  to  long  remember  their  introduction  to  him. 

It  was  Ericsson's  custom  on  warm  summer  days  to  cross  the 
ferry  to  the  Jersey  shore,  and  wander  in  the  "  Elysian  Fields  " 
on  Iloboken  Heights,  with  his  secretary,  Mr.  Taylor,  watching 
the  boats  on  the  Hudson  and  the  moving  panorama  of  life 
along  the  water  front  of  a  great  commercial  city.  On  one  oc- 
casion he  entered  into  conversation  with  an  old  beggar  woman, 
and  at  its  close  bestowed  upon  her  the  contents  of  his  pocket- 
book,  reserving,  at  the  prudent  suggestion  of  his  secretary,  just 
enough  to  carry  him  across  the  ferry.  As  the  recipient  of  his 
bounty  turned  away,  Ericsson  said  to  his  companion,  *'  I  have 
made  one  old  woman  happy  for  a  day  at  least." 

These  illustrations  of  the  kindly  spirit  that  controlled  his 
relations  to  those  about  him  might  be  indefinitely  multiplied. 
To  improve  the  condition,  and  increase  the  happiness,  of  his 
fellow-men,  in  lesser  as  well  as  larger  matters,  was  his  reli- 
gion. In  the  spring  of  1863,  in  the  very  high  tide  of  his 
absorption  with  monitor  construction,  he  was  waited  upon  by 
a  colored  man  who  wished  to  interest  him  in  a  scheme  for 
benefiting  the  colored  race  by  encouraging  emigration  to 
Africa.  He  called  frequently,  but  Ericsson  was  never  too 
busv  to  see  him.  The  humble  colored  man,  on  his  mission  of 
mercy,   found    ready   entrance    through    doors   double-barred 


PUBLIC   AND   PRIVATE   BENEFACTIONS.  231 

against  those  coming  to  burn  the  incense  of  flattery,  or  whose 
visits  were  prompted  by  mere  curiosity. 

Frequent  applications  for  aid  came  from  Swedes  on  this  side 
of  the  Atlantic,  or  from  those  on  the  other  side  who  wished 
for  advice  or  assistance  to  enable  them  to  come  here.  When 
he  was  told  that  there  was  a  surplus  of  civil  engineers  in  Swe- 
den, Ericsson  answered  that  this  "  is  no  good  omen  for  me,  be- 
cause when  they  have  failed  in  everything  they  come  to  me. 
It  has  been  so  for  more  than  thirty  years."  He  would  aid, 
when  he  could,  petitioners  whose  circumstances  required  it, 
but,  as  his  secretary  once  wrote :  "  Although  he  frequently 
gives  pecuniary  assistance  to  countrymen  in  distress,  he 
never  lends  money  to  them."  He  had  made  "  advances "  to 
apparently  respectable  Swedes,  "  but  in  every  instance  had 
been  defrauded  of  the  sums  thus  generously  advanced."  When 
he  was  asked  to  aid  a  Swedish  emigration  enterprise,  his  sec- 
retary answered,  "that  he  positively  and  respectfully  declined 
giving  aid  to  any  enterprise  tending  to  induce  his  countrymen 
to  leave  their  native  land,  which  stands  in  need  of  all  its  sons." 

On  December  12,  1879,  he  gives  this  uncomplimentary 
expression  to  his  opinion  concerning  the  United  States,  in  a 
letter  to  a  Swede  at  Orebro  : 

I  should  deem  your  allusion  to  your  son's  "  soaga  Kropp  "  quite  suf- 
ficient to  advise  you  not  to  send  him  to  a  country  which  breaks  down 
constitutions  more  rapidly  than  probably  any  other,  even  in  cases  of 
persons  enjoying  comforts,  and  which,  in  view  of  the  privations  Mr. 
Jonas  inevitably  will  have  to  endure,  will  prove  doubly  trying.  But 
when  I  consider  that  our  five  hundred  universities  and  technological 
institutions,  which  have  just  come  into  full  activity,  are  inundating  the 
country  with  talented  young  men  who  have  been  trained  to  do  exactly 
what  is  here  wanted — young  men,  sons  of  the  soil,  favored  by  influential 
relations — I  look  upon  your  son's  prospects  as  simply  hopeless ;  more 
particularly  since  a  great  number  of  those  who  are  favored  as  stated, 
cannot  now  find  employment.  I  have  myself  been  importuned  by  some 
of  these  young  men,  whose  position  is  really  embaiTassing,  so  much  so 
that  some  have  been  compelled  to  enter  the  naval  service  as  engineers 
as  the  only  chance  of  earning  bread.  I  will  merely  add  :  America  is 
no  longer  the  field  it  once  was  for  educated  young  foreigners  who  can 
neither  write  nor  speak  the  language  fluently. 

Having  during  a  series  of  years  suffered  great  inconvenience  and  loss 
by  this  class  of  persons,  in  consequence  of  my  delicacy  in  answering  ap- 


232  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

plications  from  abroad  in  the  right  way,  I  have  lately  been  compelled  to 
adopt  the  course  of  stating  frankly,  as  I  now  do  to  you,  that  I  do  not 
receive  persons  presenting  letters  of  introduction  written  by  parties  who 
act  in  opposition  to  my  advice. 

Pardon  mv  freedom  of  expression,  but  I  deem  it  my  duty  on  this  oc- 
casion to  talk  plainly,  since  it  appears  you  are  committing  a  fatal  blon- 
der. 

Of  course,  if  Mr.  Jonas  has  sufficient  means  to  live  here  for  a  year 
without  earning  anything,  together  with  means  to  defray  expenses  of  a 
return  passage,  after  having  been  effectually  cured  of  his  fascination, 
then  by  all  means  send  him  on,  that  he  may  learn  to  what  depth 
corruption,  dishonesty,  selfishness,  and  meanness  can  descend. 

Again  he  wrote  :  "  On  no  account  send  any  youth  here.  A 
Swedish  engineer  has  nothing  to  learn  here.  Confining  work, 
trade  fraud,  and  superficial  show  are  all  this  country  has  to 
offer."  There  was  so  little  in  Ericsson's  life  at  this  time  of 
loving  association,  that  his  disgust  with  his  surroundings  was 
not  unnatural.  America  was  to  him  the  land  of  stern  reality — 
Sweden  the  home  of  romance,  and  he  turned  from  the  unre- 
lieved monotony  of  a  loveless  life  among  his  machines  and  his 
calculations,  to  draw  refreshment  from  the  hidden  fountains  of 
youthful  recollections.  To  a  now  silver-haired  friend  of  his 
early  days,  he  wrote : 

Mx  Dear  A>ton  :  Your  very  name  recalls  many  dear  memories  of 
my  youth,  and  I  remember  as  plainly  as  if  it  were  but  a  few  hours 
since  the  sound  reached  my  ear,  the  friendly  tone  with  which  Sophie 
Exvale  used  to  address  Anton.  No  sister  could  have  pronounced  the 
name  more  tenderly,  but  if  I  am  not  mistaken  her  feelings  for  you  were 
more  than  those  of  a  sister.  Excuse  my  long  delay  in  answering  your 
kind  letter.  Accept  my  hearty  thanks  for  your  trouble  in  writing  so 
much  in  detail.  You  may  be  sure  I  read  every  liue  with  the  greatest 
interest.     ...     I  hope  to  see  you  again  in  a  few  years  in  my  native 

country. 

Ever  your  affectionate  friend, 

J.  Ericsson. 

Of  this  period  of  his  life,  Ericsson  wrote,  March  24,  1876 : 
"  I  have  for  a  series  of  years  led  an  eccentric  life.  I  never 
visit  anybody,  and  never  receive  visits  excepting  from  a  few 
professional  persons.  Our  scientific  men — all  my  opponents — 
I  never  meet.     In  truth,  I  may  be  regarded  as  a  stranger,  of 


PUBLIC  AND  PRIVATE  BENEFACTIONS.  233 

whom  everybody  has  heard,  but  whom  nobody  knows  person- 
ally." He  summed  himself  up  in  a  word  when  he  said  to  Mr. 
R.  B.  Forbes :  "  My  dear  Forbes,  that  I  can  act  like  a  bear  you 
know  better  than  anyone  else  of  my  friends.  Hence,  if  you 
have  anything  good  to  show,  there  is  no  living  man  who  can 
give  you  his  opinion  in  more  plain  terms  than,  yours  truly, 
J.  E." 

Again,  he  writes  to  Captain  Adlersparre :  "As  the  result 
of  my  isolated  situation  in  the  world,  and  the  necessity  of  al- 
ways being  on  ray  guard  to  escape  being  crushed  by  my  ad- 
versaries, and  the  many  impostors  by  whom  I  have  been  sur- 
rounded, I  have  come  to  disbelieve  what  people  tell  me  until 
I  find  it  fully  confirmed.  Do  not  laugh  at  me  now.  Captain, 
when  I  say  that  nobody  can  mislead  me.  Do  not  condemn  me 
if  I  at  the  same  time  confess  that  I  am  directed  by  nobody's 
judgment  but  my  own,  and  that  I  never  consult  anybody  and 
take  nobody's  advice." 

A  Swedish  writer  says:  "Ericsson's  reserve  kept  him  long 
unknown,  except  in  a  narrow  professional  circle  in  the  United 
States.  Had  he  been  well  known,  Frederika  Bremer  would 
certainly,  in  1850,  with  her  enthusiastic  and  patriotic  disposi- 
tion, have  given  a  lively  sketch  of  the  first  engineer  of  the 
world.  But  she  makes  no  mention  of  him.  It  was  only  when 
the  cannon  were  fired  at  Hampton  Roads  that  his  fame  sounded 
through  the  world."  Mr.  E.  P.  Watson,  editor  of  the  New  York 
Engineer^  speaking  from  personal  knowledge  of  John  Ericsson, 
said  at  the  time  of  his  death : 

So  marked  was  his  individuality,  and  so  peculiar  was  he  in  many 
ways,  that  but  few  understood  him.  John  Ericsson  was  a  great  man  in 
all  respects  :  he  was  the  man  of  the  century  in  his  profession  and  in  some 
things  out  of  it.  He  made  an  appointment  with  the  writer  once,  and, 
by  the  chances  of  life,  we  missed  the  exact  hour  by  five  minutes.  Erics- 
son came  into  the  room  in  a  towering  rage,  and  lost  two  or  three  minutes 
more  in  soundly  berating  us  for  wasting  his  time.  He  was  right,  al- 
though we  did.  not  know  it  then.  Not  the  least  of  his  characteristics 
was  his  love  for  the  exact  truth.  He  related  to  us  once  the  fact  that  a 
certain  notorious  person,  once  connected  with  a  nautical  paper  in  this 
city,  called  on  him  and  said  he  had  some  facts  about  the  monitors  which 
were  not  to  their  credit,  and  he  thought  it  prudent  to  call  on  Captain 
Ericsson  and  let  him  see  the  damage  about  to  be  inflicted  on  him.    In 


234  LIFE  OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

proof  of  this  the  penny-a-liner  exhibited  a  slip  of  printed  matter,  which 
he  said  was  the  terrible  story  already  set  up.  In  relating  this  incident 
Ericsson  was  a  sight  to  behold.  He  was  like  a  lion  at  bay.  His  voice 
had  tremendous  volume  at  all  times,  and  he  was  very  dramatic  both  in 
action  and  speech.  If  he  was  half  as  decided  in  the  interview  with  the 
penny-a-liner  as  he  was  in  recalling  the  fact,  the  poor  fellow  must  have 
had  a  very  unpleasant  time. 

The  other  side  of  Ericsson's  disposition — his  liberality  to  those  who 
did  not  try  to  use  him,  is  shown  by  this  incident :  A  certain  person 
had  unconsciously  aided  him  by  bearing  unsolicited  testimony  as  to 
the  construction  of  the  monitors  and  their  general  features.  This  person 
was  entirely  unknown  to  Ericsson  and  had  never  sought  his  acquaint- 
ance. Ericsson  sought  him,  however,  and  when  he  called  in  answer  to 
an  ajjpointment,  Ericsson  expressed  his  thanks  in  his  characteristic  way. 
He  advanced  rapidly  into  the  room  and  grasjied  the  visitor  with  both 
hands,  saying:  "You  have  done  me  a  very  great  service,  sir— a  very 
great  service.  I  thank  you,  sir;  it  is  all  true  what  you  say,  sir.  I  am 
glad  to  make  your  acquaintance,  sir.  That  is  all,  sir.  Take  this,  with 
my  compliments."  The  visitor  took  "this,"  which  proved  to  be  a  large 
envelope,  and  retired  in  good  order.  Supposing  the  envelope  to  con- 
tain some  information  about  the  monitors,  he  carelessly  opened  it  on  the 
street,  when  five  fifty-dollar  notes  slid  languidly  out  on  the  pavement. 
This  startled  the  visitor,  who  thought  something  was  wrong — that  Cap- 
tain Ericsson  had,  in  his  haste,  got  hold  of  the  wrong  envelope ;  that  he 
really  meant  to  give  tracings,  but  had  been  deceived  in  the  sound  of  the 
contents  of  the  envelope,  which  rattled  veiT  much  as  a  tracing  confined 
in  an  envelope  would.  Back  posted  the  visitor,  and  demanded  audience 
with  Captain  Ericsson  again.  This  was  rash  on  his  part,  for  the  Union 
was  in  throes  at  that  moment,  and  Captain  Ericsson  was  working  eigh- 
teen hours  a  day.  It  can  be  readily  seen  that  he  did  not  have  much 
time  to  fool  away  on  interviews.  Nevertheless,  in  answer  to  the  re- 
quest, down  he  came  from  the  upper  regions  in  a  perfect  fever  of  im- 
patience. 

"What  is  the  matter  now,  sir;  what  is  it?     Speak,  sir,  quick  !  " 

The  visitor  as  rapidly  as  possible  told  Captain  Ericsson  his  reasons 
for  returning,  which  were  soon  cut  short  by  Ericsson  saying : 

"That  is  all  right,  sir;  I  know  it,  sir;  I  have  not  made  any  mis- 
take, sir  ;  I  do  not  make  mistakes.  Nobody  shall  do  me  a  service  but 
that  I  shall  pay  him,  sir.  Good-morning,  sir.  I  am  very  busy  indeed," 
and  out  the  visitor  went,  breathless.  This  same  gift  was  repeated,  minus 
the  interview,  some  months  later. 

Countless  similar  instances  could  be  related  of  his  munificence. 
Ericsson  literally  gave  away  fortunes  in  his  lifetime ;  his  liberality  was 
boundless  to  those  whom  he  believed  friendly  to  him.  Woe  unto  them 
who  tried  to  extract  money  from  him  on  any  pretext,  or  who  opposed 
him. 


PUBLIC    AND    nilYATE   BENEFACTIONS.  235 

Concerning  the  "  penny-a-liner  "  here  spoken  of,  Ericsson 
wrote  the  letter  that  follows  to  the  editor  of  the  newspaper 
enjoying  his  services.  I  give  it  here  simply  because  it  reveals 
the  nature  and  origin  of  some  of  the  influences  affecting  public 
opinion,  at  the  time  when  tlie  merits  of  the  monitors  were  most 
actively  discussed.  Against  the  combined  influences  of  profes- 
sional prejudice,  trade  rivalries,  and  venal  criticism,  the  busy 
engineer,  whose  sole  thought  was  for  the  perfection  of  his 
work,  found  himself  at  times  almost  powerless. 

New  York,  November  2,  1864. 

Deab  Sib:    Naval   reporter  blackmailed   me   for   some   time. 

On  my  discontinuing  to  pay  he  attacked  the  monitors  and  persecuted 
me  with  vile  slander.     In  order  to  put  an  end  to  his  assaults  I  advised 

Mr. of  the  facts,  and  sent  him  an  extract  from  my  check-book. 

was  discharged,  and  I  now  learn,  to  my  regret,  reports  for  your 

journal.  The  enclosed  paragraph,  which  appears  in  your  columns'  to- 
day, is  an  atrocious  falsehood  in  eveiy  particular. 

Permit  me  respectfully  to  call  to  your  attention  the  fact  that  these 
untrue,  damning  paragraphs,  that  have  appeared  from  time  to  time  in 
the  daily  papers,  written  by  reporters  simply  to  exact  blackmail,  have 
produced  deep  discouragement  with  all  loyal  people.  But  for  the  fact 
that  the  leading  Governments  of  Europe  have  had  stationed  here  a  num- 
ber of  competent  naval  officers  who  have  all  reported  in  favor  of  the  tur- 
reted  iron-clads,  our  foreign  relations  would  not  now  stand  as  well  as 
they  do.  European  officers  have  often  expressed  to  me  their  surprise 
to  find  that  less  than  half  a  dozen  needy  reporters,  persons  without  pa- 
triotism or  honor,  should  have  succeeded  in  deceiving  the  whole  world. 
.  .  .  Personally  I  care  nothing  about  the  abuse  of  the  reporters,  but, 
as  I  have  before  stated,  our  good  cause  is  seriously  injured  both  at  home 
and  abroad. 

Yours  very  respectfully, 
(Signed)  J.  Ekicsson. 


CHAPTER  XXXiy. 

FRIENDSHIPS  AND  CHARACTERISTICS. 

Correspondence  ■vdth  Friends. — Answers  to  Letters  Calling  for  Profes- 
sional Advice  and  Autogi-aphs. — His  Biography  by  Adlersparre. — 
A  Fuller  History  Proposed. — Friendship  with  Ole  Bull. — His  Love 
of  Music. — Intimate  Relations  with  Cornelius  H.  Delamater. — Erics- 
son's Hasty  Temper. — His  Manly  Acknowledgment  of  Fault. — "Warm 
Eegard  for  Peter  Cooper. — Octogenarian  Reminiscences. 

FRIENDSHIP,  as  Emerson  tells  us,  "  requires  more  time 
tlian  poor  busy  men  can  usually  command."  Ericsson's 
friendships  were  thus  limited,  but  when  once  formed  they  were 
as  enduring  as  life.  He  was  as  true  to  his  friends  as  he  was 
charitable  and  forgiving  toward  those  who  had  done  him  injus- 
tice or  positive  wrong.  Of  him,  as  of  all  true-hearted  men,  his 
friends  could  say :  "  I  need  never  meet,  or  speak,  or  write  to 
him  ;  we  need  not  reinforce  ourselves,  or  send  tokens  of  re- 
membrance ;  I  rely  on  him  as  on  myself."  His  friendships 
were  like  the  good  wine,  that  grows  mellower  and  richer  with 
time.  In  a  letter  to  his  old  friend  Sargent  he  once  said  (June 
30,  1867): 

I  will  not  attempt  to  apologize  for  my  protracted  silence,  but  ask 
your  forgiveness.  I  freely  admit  I  have  been  very  negligent,  but  not  in- 
diflferent,  for  I  can  safely  say  there  is  not  another  man  on  earth  for 
whom  I  cherish  warmer  feelings  of  friendship  than  for  yourself.  Xor  is" 
there  another  man  who  has  stronger  claims  on  my  gratitude  than  John 
O.  Sargent.  Admitting  thus  frankly  that  I  have  neglected  to  fulfil 
what  is  really  very  plain  duty,  I  feel  bound  to  say  that,  had  your  interest 
been  involved,  and  could  my  writing  have  eflfected  anything  for  your 
welfare,  you  would  have  had  a  letter  at  every  post.  Imperceptibly  I 
have  become  so  perfectly  utilitarian  that  I  can  do  nothing  that  does 
not  effect  some  practical  good.  My  passion  to  be  useful  has  grown 
apace. 


FRIENDSHIPS   AND   CHARACTERISTICS.  237 

This  illustrates  the  spirit  of  Ericsson's  life.  He  was  full  of 
kindly  feeling,  and  was  always  ready  to  stretch  forth  his  hand 
to  those  in  need  of  his  service,  but  his  absorption  in  great  pro- 
jects gave  him  little  leisure  for  those  lesser  offices  of  friendship 
that  furnish  the  small  change  of  social  intercourse.  Still,  what 
he  did  was  done  with  his  whole  heart,  and  he  added  to  the  gift 
the  grace  of  cheerful  giving.  In  a  letter  sent  August  30,  1878, 
to  the  associate  of  his  early  manhood,  Count  A.  E.  von  Rosen, 
Ericsson  said : 

It  is  witli  indescribable  pleasure  that  I  now  find  that  you  enjoy  bet- 
ter health  than  when  you  wrote  me  the  last  time,  and  may  this  continue 
long.     My  health  is  unchanged,  God  be  praised.     Please  accept  the  en 
closed  28,000  francs  as  a  friendly  gift  from 

Your  affectionate  and  grateful  friend, 

J.  Ericsson. 

P.  S. — As  I  thought  you  were  blind  I  was  so  delighted  at  seeing  your 
well-known  hand  that  I  pressed  the  signature  to  my  lips. 

In  a  previous  letter  Ericsson  had  given  expression  to  the  ad- 
miration he  felt  for  his  friend's  display  of  fortitude  at  the  pros- 
pect that  he  might  lose  his  sight.  "  My  grief  at  your  great  loss," 
he  added,  "  finds  relief  in  the  recollection  of  what  Milton  ac- 
complished after  darkness  had  laid  its  hands  upon  his  eyes.  Is 
there  anyone  with  the  sharpest  eyesight  who  has  given  man- 
kind such  elevated  enjoyment  as  the  blind  Englishman  ?  " 

Innumerable  letters  breathe  a  similar  spirit  of  generous  re- 
gard for  those  who  had  a  warm  place  in  his  heart,  or  who  had 
done  him  service.  Among  his  most  valued  friends  in  Sweden 
was  Commodore  Axel  Adlersparre — heretofore  referred  to  by 
his  earlier  title  of  Captain — at  one  time  Assistant  Minister  of 
Marine,  and  a  member  of  the  Chamber  of  jSTobles,  as  Baron 
Adlersparre.  He  was  a  rough,  honest-hearted,  and  frank  sailor, 
unselfishly  devoted  to  the  honor  and  interest  of  his  country,  and 
with  so  high  a  sense  of  obligation  that  his  sincere  wish  was 
that  nothing  might  be  said  over  his  grave,  except  that  he  "had 
loved  and  served  his  friends,  his  country,  and  his  God  less  than 
he  could  and  should  have  done."  In  his  youth  he  had  served 
in  the  United  States  Xavy,  and  was  a  shipmate  on  the  corvette 
Cyane^  in  1838,  '39,  '40,  of  Captain  Fox,  afterward  Assistant 


238  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

Secretary  of  the  IT.  S.  Xavy.  Adlersparre,  at  that  time  an  oflBcer 
in  the  Swedisli  Xavy,  was  a  graduate  of  the  Military  Academy 
at  Karlsberg.  After  having  availed  himself  of  three  years 
leave  of  absence,  to  do  a  tour  of  duty  as  a  common  sailor  on 
board  an  American  man-of-war,  he  procured  an  extension  of 
his  leave  and  continued  his  voyages  in  1842  and  1843,  on  Lakes 
Erie,  Huron,  and  Michigan.  This  shows  the  quality  of  the 
man,  for  his  sacrifice  of  his  position  was  voluntary,  and  upon 
his  return  home  he  was  given  command  of  a  Swedish  naval 
vessel.  He  was  of  an  excellent  family,  his  father,  Count  Ad- 
lersparre, having  been  chief  among  the  patriots  who  established 
the  liberal  Swedish  Constitution  of  1S09. 

Adlersparre  was  a  warm  admirer  of  Ericsson,  and  an  earnest 
champion,  in  the  Swedish  Diet  and  elsewhere,  of  his  ideas  con- 
cerning the  defence  of  Sweden.  In  1866  he  published  in 
Sweden  a  work  entitled,  "  John  Ericsson  and  One  Hundred  of 
his  Inventions."  "Writing  concerning  this,  Ericsson  said  in  a 
letter  dated  November  7,  1865  : 

A  complete  biography  of  J.  E.  will  be  written  by  a  skilled  hand,  but 
the  work  will  be  so  extensive  that  many  years  will  pass  before  it  will  be 
comjjleted.  It  will  contain  a  machine  atlas  showing  my  principal  works 
in  the  mechanical  department. 

You  will  understand  how  extensive  the  work  will  be  when  I  mention 
that  the  cost  will  exceed  $50,000.  The  Patent  Office  in  England,  some 
time  ago,  asked  for  a  list  of  my  most  important  inventions.  As  I  had  not 
time  to  read  through  my  diary,  which  now  contains  over  ten  thousand 
pages,  still  less  to  read  the  documents  to  which  the  above-mentioned 
pages  are  only  an  index,  I  was  obliged  to  write  down  from  memory  one 
hundred  inventions,  to  reach  at  least  the  same  number  as  the  Marquis 
of  Worcester's  paper  inventions.  A  copy  of  this  incomplete  list  I  now 
send  in  case  you  would  like  to  add  to  it  the  incomplete  biography  which 
Headley,  without  my  knowing  it,  has  written.  I  beg  you  to  let  me  pay 
all  the  expenses.  To  speak  sincerely,  Headley's  book  does  me  such  in- 
justice in  respect  to  my  works  that  I  would  not  like  to  have  it  laid  be- 
fore the  Swedish  public  without  the  enclosed  short  list  of  my  mechani- 
cal works. 

The  reference  in  this  letter  is  to  a  little  volume  called 
"  The  Miner's  Boy,"  in  which  Mr.  J.  T.  Headley  endeavors  to 
do  honor  to  John  Ericsson.  Ericsson  and  Adlersparre  were  in 
constant  correspondence  during  the   latter  part  of  Ericsson's 


FRIENDSHIPS   AND  CHARACTERISTICS.  23^ 

life,  using  Swedish  usually  as  the  medium  of  communication. 
Their  letters  were  chiefly  devoted  to  the  discussion  of  problems 
of  naval  defence,  and  to  au  interchange  of  views  as  to  the  best 
means  of  securing  attention  to  Ericsson's  ideas  in  his  native 
land.  The  influences  assailing  him  at  home  were  so  powerful 
and  persistent  that  he  was  at  times  misled  as  to  the  national 
sentiment  toward  him.  "It  pains  me,"  wrote  Adlersparre, 
Xovember  11,  1867,  "that  you  should  believe  that  you  are 
mistrusted  or  misunderstood  by  us  here.  I  can  assure  you  that 
the  reverse  is  the  case.  You  are  looked  upon  here  almost  in 
the  light  of  a  demi-god.     This  is  the  exact  truth." 

Other  friends  of  Ericsson's  youth  were  also  remembered, 
and  letters  from  them  were  ever  welcome  and  most  cordially 
acknowledged.  To  one  of  the  pretty  girls  of  his  boyish  rec- 
ollections, now  a  distressful  grandam,  he  enclosed  200  francs 
to  defray  the  expenses  of  her  stay  at  a  water-cure  establish- 
ment, and  continued  a  yearly  remittance  until  her  death,  at 
ninety.  "  What  you  say  about  her  age  and  altered  appear- 
ance," he  wrote  to  the  friend  who  had  called  his  attention  to 
her  wants,  "is  like  an  unpleasant  dream.  It  seems  but  a  short 
time  since  I  saw  the  beautiful  girl,  to  whose  favor  all  the  young 
men  aspired,  dancing  in  the  beautiful  midnight  light  of  Xorr- 
land."  When  the  old  lady  presumed  upon  his  kindness  to 
ask,  through  one  of  his  correspondents,  that  he  furnish  her 
with  money  to  pay  her  debts,  Ericsson  answered :  "  For  such 
purposes  it  is  not  my  custom  to  be  liberal.  At  Christmas 
time  she  may  possibly  through  you  receive  something  to  buy 
candy." 

Ericsson  was  besieged,  like  all  noted  men,  with  requests  for 
his  autograph.  To  the  ordinary  collector  he  turned  a  deaf  ear, 
and  it  was  only  on  rare  occasions  that  he  complied  with  some 
special  request ;  then  his  response  was  most  gracious.  To  a 
lady,  for  example,  who  asked  for  a  carte  de  visite  with  auto- 
graph, he  sent  through  his  friend,  John  F.  Winslow,  who  prof- 
fered the  request,  a  handsomely  framed  photograph  accom- 
panied by  his  signature.  To  the  innumerable  letters  that  con- 
stantly assailed  him,  asking  advice  or  assistance,  pecuniary  or 
otherwise,  in  bringing  out  inventions,  reply  was  made  according 
to  circumstances.     To  those  who  desired  him  to  give  his  pro- 


240  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

fessional  opinion  as  to  their  work,  the  stereotyped  answer  was 
usually  sent  that  Captain  Ericsson  never  gave  his  opinion  on 
patentable  inventions.  Too  persistent  beggars  for  the  favor  of 
his  approval  would  receive  a  still  more  positive  refusal,  adapted 
to  their  special  form  of  persistence  ;  for  example,  a  letter  from 
the  secretary,  saying :  "  Captain  Ericsson  declines  to  have 
anything  to  do  with  your  useless  invention."  On  another  oc- 
casion Ericsson  wrote  :  "  As  stated,  I  have  abstained  from  giv- 
ing an  opinion  on  the  plan  which  you  forward.  The  task  of 
finding  fault  is  a  very  ungracious  one,  hence  my  reticence.  To 
be  candid,  there  is  not  a  redeeming  feature  in  the  entire  plan, 
and  I  sincerely  trust  such  a  vessel  M'ill  never  be  built."  To  an- 
other correspondent  he  said  :  "  I  regret  to  find  that  you  are 
spending  your  time  over  a  mechanical  absurdity."  This  was 
followed  by  an  elaborate  demonstration  of  the  absurdity. 

To  R.  B.  Forbes  he  thus  wrote,  concerning  the  invention  of 
one  of  his  clerical  friends : 

Pray  do  not  be  offended  with  me  for  having  remained  silent  during 
seven  days.  The  fact  is  I  have  ceased  taking  any  interest  in  the  mystic 
ladder,  since  you  inform  me  that  its  inventor  is  foolish  enough  to  think 
oi  foreign  patents.  I  supposed  he  was  only  experimenting  as  a  pleasant 
pastime,  but  now  that  he  is  bent  on  making  money  by  his  practically 
worthless  scheme,  I  say,  as  I  have  said  to  thousands  of  other  mechanical 
schemers,  that  I  never  investigate  or  give  opinions  on  inventions  in- 
tended to  be  patented.  I  am  tnily  sorry  for  your  reverend  friend,  for 
every  dollar  he  spends  on  his  invention  will  be  lost,  not  to  mention  the 
loss  of  valuable  time  which  ought  to  be  devoted  to  the  saving  of  souls. 

In  some  observations  on  the  Patent  Laws  before  the  Lon- 
don Society  of  Arts,  in  March,  1S56,  Mr.  I.  Iv.  Brunei  said 
that,  having  "all  his  life  been  connected  with  inventions  and 
workmen,  he  had  witnessed  the  injury,  the  waste  of  mind,  the 
waste  of  time,  the  excitement  of  false  hopes,  the  vast  waste 
of  money,  caused  by  the  Patent  Laws  ;  in  fact,  the  evils  which 
generally  resulted  from  the  attempt  to  protect  that  which  did 
not  naturally  admit  of  protection.  "We  were  already  nearly 
arrived  at  that  state  of  things  Avhen  engineers  were  almost 
brought  to  a  dead  stand  in  their  attempt  to  introduce  improve- 
ments from  the  excess  of  protection.  He  found  that  be  could 
hardly  introduce  the  slightest  improvement  into  his  own  ma- 


FRIENDSHIPS   AND   CHARACTERISTICS.  241 

cliinery  without  being  stopped  by  a  patent."  This  was  Erics- 
son's experience.  "Like  all  other  original  ideas,"  he  wrote, 
concerning  one  of  his  experiences,  "  entitling  me  to  fortune  and 
honor,  the  one  in  question  will  also  be  stolen  from  me," 

No  man  could  be  more  generous  than  Ericsson  in  extending 
kindly  advice  and  assistance  to  modest  merit,  where  he  felt 
that  it  was  safe  for  him  to  do  so,  without  risk  of  finding  some 
ambitious  inventor  advertising  his  approval,  after  the  fashion 
of  patent  medicine  venders.  On  one  occasion,  a  young  officer 
of  the  Engineer  Corps  of  the  Kavy  asked  him  to  recommend 
an  invention  he  liad  made.  Enclosing  a  copy  of  a  letter  writ- 
ten in  response  to  this,  Ericsson  said :  "  I  trust  that  you  will 
derive  adequate  pecuniary  reward  for  your  admirable  inven- 
tion. My  wish  in  this  respect  is  the  more  earnest  since  you 
told  me  the  other  day  you  cared  for  your  mother.  Nothing  so 
fully  enlists  my  sympathy  as  the  knowledge  that  a  man  is  la- 
boring for  such  a  purpose." 

Many  a  young  engineer  had  occasion  to  remember  Ericsson 
for  suggestions  and  assistance  of  service  to  him  all  through  life. 
Mr.  Henry  E..  "Worthington,  replying  to  a  letter  of  thanks  re- 
ceived from  Ericsson  for  some  service  rendered,  said  (August 
20,  1873) :  "  I  pray  you  not  to  speak  of  gratitude  ;  I  have 
only  to  look  back  to  the  time  when  in  true  kindness  you  helped 
me  to  take  my  first  feeble  steps  in  engineering,  to  know  on 
which  side  the  debt  of  gratitude  is  due.  I  shall  never  forget 
those  pleasant  and  interesting  days.  Nor  shall  I  ever  cease 
to  think  of  you  as  one  from  whom  I  received  nothing  but 
kindness  and  instruction."  In  a  letter  written  just  before 
Worthington's  death,  in  1880,  Ericsson  said:  "  In  view  of  the 
apparently  insuperable  difficulties  overcome,  I  regard  your 
pumping  engine  as  the  greatest  achievement  in  hydraulic  en- 
gineering of  our  time." 

In  1867,  Ole  Bull  conceived  the  idea  of  an  improvement  in 
the  sounding-board  of  pianos,  and  undertook  to  construct  an 
instrument  to  illustrate  it.  lie  met  with  no  end  of  difficulties, 
due  to  his  inexperience,  and  the  fact  that  he  was  constantly 
on  the  move,  giving  concerts  all  over  the  country.  After  ex- 
pending $15,000  on  his  new  piano,  he  abandoned  it  and  com- 
menced work  upon  another  instrument.  The  same  difficulties 
Vol.  II.— 16 


242  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

assailed  hira,  or  new  ones  quite  as  formidable.  John  Ericsson, 
learning  of  his  friend's  troubles,  asked  him  to  explain  his  idea 
and  agreed  to  make  for  him  a  frame  of  the  right  weight  and 
strength,  insisting  upon  one  condition  only,  that  it  should  be 
accepted  as  a  present. 

With  this  efficient  aid,  Ole  Bull  succeeded  in  completing  the 
second  piano  to  his  satisfaction.  "  Xo  friendly  service,"  says 
Mrs.  Bull  in  the  memoir  of  her  husband,  '"  ever  touched  Ole 
Bull  more  deeply  than  the  generous  helpfulness  of  John  Erics- 
son, whom  he  admired  and  loved."  Ole  Bull  himself  sent  this 
glowing  acknowledgment : 

Lyso  (Bergen),  September  5,  1877. 

Great  Friend  :  The  influence  of  the  last  measure  of  infinite  kind- 
ness on  Tour  part,  and  the  sacrifice  of  time,  money,  and  benevolent  in- 
spiration bestowed  upon  my  humble  efi"orts  ou  so  many  occasions,  is  as 
vivid  and  present  as  when  they  began,  and  time  will  be  merciful  to  me 
that  I  may  realize  the  more  the  immense  power  of  your  great  genius, 
and  subtle  influence  of  your  glowing  sympathy. 

The  fiercest  animal  or  spirit  from  my  neighborhood  I  send  to  you 
with  warmest  greetings  ;  to  be  trod  upon,  he  will  consider  the  highest 
honor  that  ever  you  bestowed  in  touching  your  boots. 

The  piano  improves  every  day,  but  much  is  yet  to  improve. 

Great  Master,  good  Genius,  receive  the  affectionate  thanks  of 

Yours, 

Ole  Bull. 

John  Ericsson,  36  Beach  Street,  New  York. 

Speaking  of  what  he  called  Mr.  Bull's  "  admirable  concep- 
tion of  securing  the  strings  of  pianos  to  a  separate  frame  com- 
posed of  metal,  so  formed  that  it  may  be  applied  to  any  wooden 
stand  more  or  less  ornamented,"  Ericsson  said : 

It  was  my  privilege  often  to  Usten  to  my  lamented  friend's  disquisi- 
tions relating  to  the  violin,  showing  his  clear  mechanical  conceptions 
of  the  laws  that  govern  the  construction  of  that  most  perfect  of  all  mu- 
sical instruments.  The  great  violinist  possessed  a  singularly  accurate 
knowledge  of  the  necessary  relations  between  the  capability  of  resisting 
the  tension  of  the  strings,  and  the  elasticity  requisite  to  admit  of  a 
perfectly  free  movement  of  the  sounding-board  and  other  delicate  parts 
of  the  structure,  indispensable  to  produce  those  infinitely  minute  vibra- 
tions, the  control  of  which,  by  his  master  hands,  created  tones  which 
enabled  Ole  Bull  to  charm  his  hearers  as  none  of  his  rivals  could.  I 
regard  the  independent  metallic  frame  for  holding  the  strings  of  pianos, 


FRIENDSHIPS   AND   CHARACTERISTICS.  243 

as  an  invention  which  would  do  honor  to  any  professional  mechanician  ; 
and  I  contemplate  with  much  satisfaction  the  circumstance  that  my  de- 
parted friend  entrusted  to  me  the  construction  of  the  first  specimen  of 
his  important  improvement. 

The  relations  of  the  two  Xorsemen  were  most  affectionate, 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  differed  radically  on  the  subject 
of  Scandinavian  politics.  Ericsson's  liveliest  sentiment  was 
the  love  of  his  native  Sweden,  and  the  Norwegian  musician,  as 
an  evidence  of  his  animosity  toward  the  country  which  had 
deprived  Xorway  of  her  independence,  was  accustomed  to 
tread  the  Swedish  flag  under  foot. 

In  his  way,  Ericsson  was  fond  of  music,  and  would  whistle  at 
his  work  like  a  blackbird.  Xo  street  organ  that  had  a  musical 
note  in  it  could  pass  his  window  without  calling  him  from  his 
desk.  On  one  occasion,  his  attention  was  arrested  by  musical 
sounds.  Supposing  them  to  come  from  some  vagrant  violinist, 
he  went  to  his  window  ;  no  one  was  to  be  seen.  Suddenly 
the  truth  dawned  upon  him,  and  with  characteristic  impetuos- 
ity he  exclaimed,  "  My  God  !  it  is  Ole  Bull ! "  and  rushed 
downstairs,  two  steps  at  a  time,  and  into  the  arms  of  the  great 
performer,  to  whom  he  administered  a  hearty  Korse  hug. 

Then  Ericsson  discovered  that  he  was  the  victim  of  an 
amiable  little  plot.  Mrs.  Bull,  it  appears,  had  sought  an  intro- 
troduction,  and  as  Ericsson  had  never  found  leisure  for  this,  she 
had  enlisted  on  her  behalf  one  of  his  few  intimate  friends,  Mrs. 
E.  H.  Stoughton.  The  two  ladies  persuaded  their  husbands 
to  join  them  in  their  little  scheme,  and  the  quartette  went  to 
Ericsson's  house.  The  door  was  opened  by  the  faithful  house- 
keeper, Ann,  who  had  been  carefully  trained  to  stand  guard 
over  her  master's  privacy.  Mrs.  Stoughton,  who  was  well 
known  to  her,  hurried  the  bewildered  servant  into  a  back  room, 
where  Mr.  Stoughton  and  the  two  female  conspirators  hid 
themselves,  while  the  sweet  strains  of  Ole  Bull's  violin  enticed 
Ericsson  from  his  seclusion. 

Cordial  greetings  followed  the  surprise,  for  Ericsson,  when 
the  barriers  which  surrounded  him  were  once  passed,  was 
always  found  to  be  a  most  agreeable  gentleman.  The  ladies 
left,  delighted  with  the  success  of  their  stratagem,  and  a  pleas- 
ant acquaintance  with  Mrs.   Bull  followed.     Of  her  husband 


244  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

Ericsson  wrote,  "  So  warm  a  heart  and  so  generous  a  disposi- 
tion as  his,  I  have  never  known."  "  These  words,"  adds  Mrs- 
Bull  in  quoting  them,  "  it  may  be  truthfully  said,  expressed  the 
sentiment  and  the  judgment  of  the  violinist  concerning  the 
great  engineer." 

"With  his  friend  "  Harry,"  Mr.  Cornelius  H.  Delamater, 
Ericsson  continued  in  association  for  half  a  century,  or  from 
the  time  of  his  arrival  in  this  country  in  1S39,  to  the  death  of 
Mr.  Delamater,  in  1SS9.  In  engineering  enterprises  they  were 
inseparable,  Ericsson  furnishing  the  ideas  and  plans,  and  Mr. 
Delamater  the  mechanical  work  and  capital  for  reducing  them 
to  practical  demonstration.  The  resources  of  the  manufactory 
under  Mr.  Delamater's  control  were  always  at  Ericsson's  dis- 
posal, without  reference  to  immediate  profit,  and  the  extent  of 
the  experimental  work  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  charges  against 
Ericsson  for  such  expenditures,  to  the  amount  of  over  ^260,000, 
were  on  one  occasion  "  charged  off  "  on  the  books  of  Mr.  De- 
lamater's  firm;  from  $15,000  to  820,000  was  yearly  expended 
in  this  way.  When  there  was  a  loss  on  such  experiments  Mr. 
Delamater  usually  bore  it,  Ericsson  giving  his  time  and  talents. 
When  there  was  profit,  it  was  divided  between  them.  On  the 
whole,  the  division  was  one  of  which  neither  had  any  occasion 
to  complain.  Sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Destroyer,  Erics- 
son would  furnish  his  full  proportion  of  the  outlay,  besides  his 
professional  labor. 

On  one  occasion,  when  Mr.  Delamater  called  upon  Ericsson 
in  some  pecuniary  strait,  such  as  all  men  of  business  are  liable 
to,  he  received  this  answer  to  his  application  : 

Dear  Harrt  :  I  do  not  regret — and  I  am  sure  jou  need  not — that 
you  called  on  me  to  give  you  a  lift  in  your  trouble.  Taking  my  ability 
for  granted,  there  is  not  a  man  on  earth  you  could  with  more  propriety 
come  to.  There  is,  however,  abundant  cause  for  regret  that  my  means 
are  at  present  so  limited  that  I  cannot  offer  a  lift  worth  accepting.  The 
small  amount  of  S50,000  mentioned  yesterday  is  at  your  service.  I  am, 
dear  Harry,  Yours  truly, 

J.  Ericsson. 

Mr.  Delamater's  estimate  of  his  friend  is  shown  by  this  ex- 
tract from  a  letter  dated  Venice,  May  6,  1S79,  addressed  to  his 
Bon-in-law,  Mr.  George  11.  Robinson : 


FRIENDSHIPS  AND  CHARACTERISTICS.  2-i5 

I  read  with  great  pleasure  the  April  (1879)  Scribyier  with  the  paper 
"  John  Ericsson  "  in  it.  I  suppose  I  ought  to  write  to  Captain  Ericsson, 
congratulating  him  on  the  appearance  of  this  paper,  but  I  do  not  feel 
like  it.  Any  sketch,  like  that  of  Captain  Ericsson,  is  so  barren  of  the 
real  history  of  my  wonderful  friend  that  it  is  disappointing  to  me.  No 
one  living — or  to  live — will  ever  know  so  well  as  I,  how  great  in  all 
ways  he  is,  and  to  me  the  records  which  are  given  are  only  like  grains 
of  sand  on  the  shore — as  comisared  with  the  real,  unwritten  history. 

Yours  truly, 

C.  H.  Delamateb. 

How  well  Mr.  Delamater  understood  his  friend  is  shown 
by  another  letter  in  which,  after  proposing  changes  in  one  of 
Ericsson's  plans,  he  savs  :  "  I  venture  these  suggestions  with  all 
the  diflBdence  jou  could  wish — shaking  in  mj  boots  at  the  idea 
of,  as  you  once  remarked,  venturing  to  teach  my  father." 

Ericsson's  hasty  temper  at  times  disturbed  the  harmony  of 
these  friendly  relations.  On  one  occasion,  Mr.  Delamater  was 
received  in  such  fashion  that  he  withdrew  f]-om  Ericsson's 
presence,  registering  a  vow  that  he  would  never  call  upon  him 
again.  Mr.  Taylor,  Ericsson's  secretary,  remembering  that 
'•  blessed  are  the  peace-makers,"  sought  to  smoothe  over  the 
difficulty  between  the  two,  who  were,  as  he  knew,  still  none  the 
less  attached  to  one  another.  He  suggested  to  Ericsson  that 
possibly  the  termination  of  Mr.  Delamater's  customary  visits 
might  be  explained  by  the  somewhat  uncomplimentary  nature 
of  his  remarks  upon  the  occasion  of  the  last  visit. 

""Well,"  was  the  answer,  "if  he  wants  to  be  such  a  fool  as 
to  stay  away  on  that  account,  he  can." 

Xext  Mr.  Delamater  was  waited  upon  and  asked  why  he 
had  not  called.  "  For  the  very  good  reason,"  he  answered, 
"  that  when  I  last  saw  Ericsson  he  said  he  did  not  want  to  see 
my  d — d  old  face  inside  his  door  again." 

With  diplomatic  reserve,  Mr.  Taylor  refrained  from  men- 
tioning the  exact  nature  of  Ericsson's  remark  on  this  subject, 
but  he  assured  Mr.  Delamater  very  truthfully,  that  his  friend 
was  anxious  to  see  him.  He  consented  to  call,  and  when  his 
familiar  knock  was  heard  on  the  door  of  Ericsson's  room,  a 
hearty  voice  responded — "  Come  in,  Harry !  "  Next  followed 
a  cordial  handshake,  and  nothing  was  said  on  the  subject  of 
differences. 


246  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

On  the  occasion  of  another  difficulty  between  them,  Erics- 
son wrote,  in  response  to  a  note  received  from  his  friend : 

Let  me  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  you  have  no  right  to 
abuse  a  man  for  being  angry,  since  anger  is  involuntary  ;  but  you  Lave  a 
right  to  hold  him  to  strict  accountability  for  all  he  says,  although 
laboring  under  excitement,  however  great. 

Nothing  in  my  vehement  expression  can  be  construed  into  an  insult 
to  you.  If  permitted  to  follow  my  inclination,  this  will  be  the  last  word 
on  this  subject,  by  writing  or  verbally.  Your  letter  is  all  I  desire,  and 
all  the  more  satisfactory  because  it  came  so  quickly  after  the  occurrence 
— what  might  have  been  expected  from  a  man  so  generous  as  yourself. 
Your  letter  is  burning  before  me  and,  please  God,  the  occurrence  shall 
be  forgotten.  Should  it  ever  involuntarily  present  itself,  it  will  be  like 
that  hideous  dream  which  has  no  reality. 

Your  truest  friend, 

J.  Ericsson. 

It  was  thus  that  John  Ericsson  would  wish  to  be  judged:  it 
is  right  that  he  should  be  thus  judged.  There  was  no  malice, 
no  unkindness  in  his  heart,  and  he  was  always  a  true  and  gen- 
erous friend.  The  vehemence  of  his  disposition  was  beyond 
his  control — the  necessary  accompaniment  of  the  ardent  and 
impulsive  temperament  which  furnished  motive  power  to  his 
rare  intellectual  ability.  Explosive  force  is  the  expression  of 
power,  and  those  who  deal  with  imprisoned  energies  must 
take  their  risks.  Does  not  Philip  Hone,  in  his  "  Diary,"  tell  us 
of  seeing  from  his  front  window,  one  morning,  the  gentle- 
liearted  poet,  Bryant,  attacking  a  fellow-editor  and  striking  him 
"  over  the  head  with  a  cowskin  ?  "  "  Those  who  knew  him  only 
in  his  later  years,"  says  Bryant's  friend  and  biographer,  Mr. 
John  Bigelow,  "  would  scarcely  believe  that  he  had  been  en- 
dowed by  nature  with  a  very  quick  and  passionate  temper.  lie 
never  entirely  overcame  it."  Kor  did  Ericsson  ;  but  Thomas 
Fuller,  the  pious  author  of  "  Holy  and  Perfect  State,"  assures 
us  that  "  anger  is  one  of  the  sinews  of  the  soul." 

"Whenever  Ericsson  felt  that  his  impetuosity  had  carried  him 
too  far,  he  was  quick  to  offer  his  apologies,  and  sometimes 
when  the  occasion  did  not  require  it.  On  January  4,  1886, 
General  Nelson  A.  Miles,  of  the  Army,  called  with  Thomas 
Kast,  the  artist.     General  Miles  had  exhibited  an  intelligent 


FRIENDSHIPS   AND   CHARACTERISTICS.  247 

and  patriotic  interest  in  Ericsson's  schemes  for  national  defence, 
and  the  great  engineer  was  thus  tempted  to  talk  more  freely 
than  was  his  wont  concerning  the  cavalier  treatment  his  prop- 
ositions had  received  at  Washington.  Neither  of  his  visitors 
was  at  all  disturbed  by  what  was  said,  but  Ericsson  felt  that  he 
had  been  too  outspoken  and  on  the  succeeding  day  each  gentle- 
man received  a  letter  of  apology.  To  General  Miles  Ericsson 
wrote,  saying: 

I  have  just  sent  a  note  to  Mr.  Nast,  thanking  him  for  his  friendly 

visit  yesterday,  and  apologizing  for  my  rude,  not  to  say  i^rofane,  criti- 
cism of  certain  high  officials  in  "Washington  ;  my  excuse  being  the  smart- 
ing under  the  infliction  of  gross  injustice,  by  which  I  am  frequently 
thrown  off  my  balance.  Pray  accept  yourself  this  excuse  for  my  unpar- 
donable rudeness. 

To  another  gentleman,  with  whom  he  had  engaged  in  a 
somewhat  animated  discussion  on  an  engineering  question,  he 
wrote : 

Pray  pardon  my  rudeness  during  our  argument.  The  fact  is,  I  was 
quite  unwell,  a  circumstance  which  I  ought  to  have  adverted  to  at  the 
time.  Pray  also  pardon  my  having  caused  you  loss  of  valuable  time 
during  an  argument  which  I  have  no  reason  to  be  proud  of. 

Ericsson  was  at  this  time  an  octogenarian,  but  whatever  the 
excuses  others  might  make  for  the  infirmities  of  age,  he  claimed 
no  privileges  for  himself.  He  was  sometimes  tempted  to  speak 
freely  of  persons  who  interfered  with  him,  but  would  afterward 
show  his  regret  at  thus  giving  way  to  feeling,  and  as  a  rule  he 
refrained  from  criticising  individuals. 

Peter  Cooper,  so  long  as  he  lived,  was  one  of  Ericsson's 
most  welcome  visitors.  He  had  the  highest  respect  for  Mr. 
Cooper's  personal  character,  and  the  warmest  sympathy  with 
his  work,  as  he  had  for  all  efforts  of  men  to  benefit  their  fel- 
lows. There  was  a  further  bond  of  union  in  Mr.  Cooper's  in- 
terest in  mechanical  inventions.  The  first  locomotive  ever 
operated  in  this  country  was  built  by  him  in  1830,  the  year 
after  the  locomotive  trial  at  Rainhill.  The  inaccessible  en- 
gineer was  never  so  busy  that  he  could  not  find  time  to  run 


248  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

downstairs  for  a  chat  with  the  great  philantliropist.  The  two 
octogenarians  would  excliange,  in  the  later  years  of  their  in- 
tercourse, recollections  of  the  earlier  period  when  they  were 
engaged  in  kindred  studies,  and  Ericsson  would  express  his 
appreciation  of  the  wisdom  prompting  Cooper  to  bestow  his 
largess  during  his  lifetime. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

RELIGIOUS   BELIEFS. 

Acceptance  of  the  Doctrine  of  a  Creative  Intelligence. — The  Great 
Mechanician. — Omniscience  Accepted,  but  not  Omnipotence. — Ar- 
gument as  to  a  Future  Existence. — The  Goal  of  Brahma. — Aversion 
to  Funerals. — The  Sermon  on  the  Mount. — Hatred  of  Cant. — Disbe- 
lief in  Creeds. — Altniistic  Principles. — Methods  of  Work. 


T 


O  Ericsson's  religious  opinions  may  be  applied  the  saying 
of  Horace : 


"He  heard  the  thunder  and  believed." 


The  perfection  of  the  machinery  that  keeps  the  universe  in 
motion  excited  his  wonder  and  admiration,  and  led  him  logically 
to  the  acceptance  of  the  doctrine  of  a  creative  intelligence.  I^o- 
where  did  he  find  proof  that  matter  has  any  inherent  power  to 
assume  forms  other  than  those  imposed  upon  it  by  mind,  and 
he  was  satisfied  that  tlie  universe  is  the  handiwork  of  One 
whom  he  was  accustomed  to  describe  as  the  "  Great  Mechani- 
cian." He  not  only  believed  in  a  Creator,  but  in  one  who  is 
omniscient  and  controlled  by  benevolent  purpose.  The  doc- 
trine of  omnipotence,  as  it  is  defined  by  theology,  he  could  not 
accept.     In  the  postscript  of  a  letter  to  Adlersparre,  he  said : 

P.  S. — I  trust  you  have  not  misconstrued  the  expressions  contained  in 
my  letter  of  February  Ith.  A  more  gi-ateful  being  does  not  live,  or  one 
■who  is  more  profoundly  impressed  with  the  wonders  and  perfections  of 
organic  nature,  than  the  humble  scribe.  But,  while  he  fully  appreci- 
ates the  beauty  of  creation,  and  admits  that  supreme  2cisdom  and  infinite 
benevolence  are  displayed  in  everything,  he  insists  that  it  cannot  be  said 
of  matter  "  there  was  a  time  when  it  was  not,"  and  he  denies  the  exist- 
ence of  a  power  that  can  disturb  laws  in  full  force  when  the  universe 
was  chaos.  In  other  words,  he  denies  the  power  to  do  impossibilities ; 
create  matter  out  of  nothing,  or  annihilate  that  which  exists. 

March  6,  1868. 


250  LIFE   OF   JOHN    ERICSSON. 

God  is  the  great  constructor — the  chief  mathematician  and 
mechanic,  and  ;ire  not  those  whose  love  of  useful  endeavor 
leads  them  to  study  the  laws  of  the  universe  he  has  created 
better  fitted  to  understand  his  nature  and  puiposes  than  those 
who  occupy  themselves  in  constructing  artificial  systems  of 
philosophy  and  religion  ? 

The  doctrine  of  immortality  Ericsson  found  difiiculty  in 
accepting.  AVith  him  the  body  was  a  machine,  and  all  experi- 
ence with  machinery  taught  him  that  when  its  force  was  ex- 
hausted, or  its  working  parts  decayed  beyond  repair,  it  fell  into 
ruin  and  entered  upon  the  process  of  disintegration,  to  pass 
once  more  through  the  cycle  of  change.  He  did  not  concern 
himself  with  the  argument  that  it  is  as  impossible  to  reduce 
matter  as  spirit  to  the  last  analysis — to  the  final  statement  of 
properties.  If  it  be  true  that  both  stand  upon  a  like  footing, 
as  something  cognizable  only  through  phenomena,  the  phe- 
nomena of  one  were  his  familiar,  everyday  acquaintance,  while 
to  seek  the  other  he  must  explore  a  region  foreign  to  him, 
and  travel  in  ways  over  which  the  mists  of  speculation  hung 
heavily. 

November  24, 1867,  Adlersparre  wrote,  saying  :  "  I  am  much 
obliged  to  you  for  the  short,  but  too  short,  biography  in  your 
last  letter.  It  was  very  interesting  to  learn  how  you  divide 
your  time.  But  much  remains  to  learn ;  for  instance,  about  your 
meals,  gymnastics,  if  you  take  wine,  sleep  after  dinner,  etc. 
The  reply  to  these  and  many  other  questions  would  be  of  great- 
est interest  to  posterity,  and  I  hope  you  will  answer  them  when 
you  have  time.  I  collect  here  in  Sweden  all  possible  materials 
for  a  future  account  of  your  remarkable  way  through  life.  In 
another  world  we  shall  have  other  roles,  and  perhaps  there  you 
will  be  a  fine  aristocrat  who  will  not  soil  his  fingers  with  India 
ink,  and  whose  highest  degree  of  happiness  will  be  to  do  noth- 
ing.    Who  knows  ? " 

To  this  Ericsson  answered  as  follows,  this  and  many  other 
letters  in  these  volumes  being  translated  from  the  Swedish  : 

New  York,  February  4,  1868. 
My  Dear  Captain  :  Replies  to  your  questions  :  To  go  to  bed  at  10 
o'clock  is  too  early  for  a  person  who  has  finished  a  substantial  meal  at  5^. 
And  that  hour  is  not  suitable  either  for  a  person  who  makes  calls  in  the 


RELIGIOUS   BELIEFS.  251 

evening,  and  afterward  takes  exercise  in  the  open  air  to  be  able  to  go  to 
bed  with  a  clear  head.  Relating  to  the  other  world,  you  can  judge  of  my 
opinion  after  having  read  and  considered  the  following  : 

The  condition  of  matter  is  essential  to  existence  and  on  this  is 
founded  an  important  axiom,  "  complete  void  reigns  in  a  place  when  mat- 
ter is  absent,"  and  consequently  a  life  without  matter  is  an  inconsistency, 
an  impossibility.  To  enclose  a  person  in  such  a  way  that  when  he  dies 
(from  suflfocation)  not  a  single  atom  can  evaporate  is  very  easy.  If  he 
be  enclosed  in  gold,  the  shutting  up  will  continue  for  thousands  of  cen- 
turies. I  suppose  you  will  say,  there  is  nothing  impossible  to  God  ;  to 
which  I  answer,  that  it  is  not  within  God's  power  to  act  against  me- 
chanical laws,  most  of  which  do  not  even  admit  a  creator.  For  instance  : 
with  all  his  power,  God  cannot  make  two  straight  parallel  lines  meet, 
however  far  they  are  drawn  ;  neither  can  he  make  the  square  of  the  hy- 
pothenuse  smaller  or  larger  than  the  squares  contained  in  the  area  of 
the  two  sides  surrounding  the  rectangle.  I  need  not  tell  you  that  in- 
numerable similar  axioms  existed  before  creation,  and  that  the  creative 
power  is  insufficient  to  overcome  laws  that  are  based  on  such  axioms  or 
rather  "  ursanningar"  (original  truths),  if  I  be  allowed  to  coin  such  a 
word,  is  indisputable.  You  can  make  the  application  yourself.  The 
desire  for  continued  enjoyment  is  so  strong,  especially  in  those  who  are 
selfish  by  nature,  that  the  final  extinction  of  existence  with  life,  although 
an  indisputable  proposition,  is  one  veiy  few  have  the  courage  to  adopt. 

A  few  weeks  later  Ericsson  wrote  : 

New  York,  April  17,  1868. 
My  Dear  Captain  :  A  word  about  eternity.  Your  belief  that  the 
soul,  which  at  the  most  is  a  mass  of  wind  lacking  form  and  organization, 
can  here  "  develop"  for  its  great  use  in  the  next  world  amuses  me  in- 
tensely. Is  it  really  a  fact  that  the  mechanical  mind  alone  can  under- 
stand that  without  thinking  machinery  thinking  is  impossible,  that  re- 
membrance is  impossible  without  an  apparatus  that  receives,  keeps,  and 
is  able  to  repeat  the  impressions,  etc.  ?  It  would  be  interesting  to  know 
how  you  think  that  the  poor  soul,  lacking  all  these  and  thousands  of 
other  necessary  requirements,  will  be  able  to  get  along  in  another  world, 
if  such  a  one  should  exist,  and  if  there  be  in  the  same  some  magic  ap- 
paratus that  could  cany  the  shapeless  creation  through  space.  As  soon 
as  I  have  time  I  will  give  your  fine  theory  such  a  blow  as  it  cannot  re- 
sist. 

Again  he  wrote,  four  days  later  :  "  Do  not  judge  too  se- 
verely my  last  seemingly  frivolous  letter.  The  fact  is  that  I 
sometimes  lack   patience  to   argue  seriously  against  a   thesis 


252  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

which  is  not  supported  by  a  single  tnUh^  but  is  contradicted  by 
a  tbousand  facts/' 

The  promised  blow  was  never  delivered,  for  meanwhile 
Captain  Adlersparre  lost  his  wife,  and  Ericsson,  with  character- 
istic kindness,  wrote,  saying : 

New  Tork,  May  29,  1868. 

Mt  Deae  Captain  :  It  is  with  great  sympathy  I  find  that  you  have 
suffered  an  irreparable  loss.  Your  belief  in  a  life  after  this,  with  the 
comforting  idea  of  the  meeting  on  the  other  side  of  the  grave,  will 
furnish  abundant  compensation  for  the  present  grief  and  pain,  and  give 
you  a  consolation  which  in  such  cases  is  denied  to  the  professors  of  ma- 
terialism. As  I  find  from  your  last  letter  that  you  reaUy  have  a  firm 
belief,  I  will  beg  your  pardon  for  my  remarks  about  religion.  I  am 
never  accustomed  to  say  anything  on  this  question  when  I  commonicate 
with  one  who  possesses  a  settled  behef. 

In  1879  Ericsson  sent  this  communication  to  his  life-long 
and  most  intimate  of  friends,  Cornelius  H.  Delamater : 

Deab  Harry  :  Life  is  the  greatest  of  evils — annihilation  the  highest 
bhss.  To  extinguish  individuality  in  absorption,  to  close  the  circle  of 
metempsychosis,  to  be  finally  rid  of  being,  is  the  goal  of  Brahma's  be- 
lievers, and  of, 

My  dear  Harry,  Yours  very  truly, 

J.  Ericsson. 

The  purpose  of  this  letter  can  only  be  conjectured.  That 
it  has  more  than  ordinary  significance  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
its  destination  was  carefully  concealed  from  those  about  Erics- 
son. The  body  of  the  copy  retained  is  in  the  handwriting  of 
his  secretary ;  the  address,  the  signature  and  the  inscription  at 
the  end  were  written  by  Ericsson  himself  and  he  has  appended 
to  the  letter  this  memorandum  : 

"  Forwarded  September  16,  1879 — Letter  put  into  the  lamp- 
post by  Louis." 

In  1S66  Professor  Mapesdied  and  Ericsson  felt  called  upon 
to  express  to  the  widow  his  regret  at  this  loss,  ilow  kind  and 
sympathetic  he  could  be  under  such  circumstances  is  shown  by 
the  letter  to  Mrs.  Mapes  that  follows.  It  is  one  of  several  sim- 
ilar letters  written  on  like  occasions,  all  expressing  the  liveli- 


RELIGIOUS  BELIEFS.  253 

est  appreciation  of  the  loss  suffered  bj  the  one  to  whom  he 
wrote ; 

New  York,  January  12,  1866. 
My  Deab  Mrs.  Mapes  :  I  cannot  refrain  from  condoling  with  you  on 
the  irreparable  loss  which  you  have  sustained.  Judging  by  my  own 
feelings  of  sadness,  I  can  realize  the  depths  of  your  sorrow.  I  always 
regarded  your  departed  husband  as  one  of  the  kindest  and  most  gener- 
ous men  I  have  ever  met.  These  amiable  qualities,  in  connection  with 
his  remarkable  intellectual  powers  and  accomplishments,  impelled  me 
to  seek  his  friendship  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  centuiy  ago.  I  now  re- 
gard that  friendship  as  one  of  the  warmest  I  ever  had  the  pleasure  to 
form.  Never  for  a  moment  did  it  flag.  James  J.  Mapes  was  always  to 
me  the  same — true  as  steel — and  I  shall  ever  cherish  his  memory  with 
affection  and  esteem.  Peace  and  honor  to  his  ashes.  I  beg  of  you  to 
remember  me  kindly  to  your  bereaved  family  and  am,  my  dear  Mrs. 
Mapes, 

Tours  very  truly, 

J.  Ericsson. 

Though  Ericsson  had  been  designated  as  one  of  Professor 
Mapes's  pall-bearers  he  did  not  even  attend  his  funeral.  For 
some  reason  he  had  a  profound  distaste  for  such  services  and 
was  never  present  at  a  funeral  after  he  left  Sweden. 

The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  awakened  in  Ericsson  the  deepest 
admiration,  and  he  was  accustomed  to  refer  to  it  as  the  most 
sublime  of  discourses.  To  a  friend  who  had  become  involved 
in  a  dispute  with  some  relative  he  wrote,  saying : 

I  have  read  your  letter  of  the  23d  veiy  carefully,  amazed  at  its  bel- 
ligerent spirit.  I  say  again  :  seek  reconciliation.  You,  with  your  splen- 
did record  and  your  years,  can  afford  to  be  magnanimous — not  so  with 
your  relative.  The  Founder  of  the  sublime  Christian  code  of  morals 
commands  you  to  ignore  the  fact  that  you  have  been  wronged  when  you 
meet  your  adversary.     I  need  say  no  more. 

I  regard  your  reference  to  "cow  skins  "  as  a  mere  slip  of  the  pen  ; 
for  I  feel  confident  that  reason,  not  resentment,  guides  in  your  dealings 
with  those  who  have  offended  you. 

On  one  occasion  a  young  naval  officer  who  was  threatened 
with  discipline  by  the  Navy  Department,  because  of  some  in- 
discretion in  which  Ericsson's  household  was  involved,  appealed 


264  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

through  his  father  to  the  sympathies  of  Ericsson  and  elicited 
from  him  this  letter  addressed  to  Secretary  Welles: 

Mr. has  requested  me  in  the  most  urgent  manner  to  address 

you  in  favor  of  his  son,  who  recently  insulted  some  of  the  females  of  my 
household.     I  cannot  imagine  how  the  young  man  is  to  benefit  by  my 

compliance,  and  I  have  so  stated  to  Mr.  ,  yet  as  he  persists  in  his 

request  I  have  most  respectfully  to  say  that  as  a  Christian  I  cheerfully 
and  completely  forgive  the  insult  which  young has  indirectly  sub- 
jected me  to. 

This  was  certainly  a  practical  application  of  his  own  teach- 
ing. 

In  a  different  vein  is  this  letter,  addressed  to  Mr,  R.  B. 
Forbes,  when  the  writer  and  recipient  of  the  letter,  as  the  date 
shows,  had  both  of  them  passed  the  age  of  three  score  and  ten : 

New  York,  July  5, 1876. 

Mt  Dear  Sir  :  You  have  entered  forbidden  ground.  Were  you  not, 
owing  to  your  exceeding  goodness,  the  special  pet  of  heaven,  your  of- 
fending hand  would  have  become  paralyzed  while  sketching  the  sec- 
tional representation  of  a  device  intended  to  supersede  the  work  of  the 
Great  Mechanician.  He  devised  the  hollow  cylinder  as  the  only  means 
capable  of  insuring  that  lightness  and  strength  indispensable  to  enable 
his  aerial  navigators  to  perform  the  wondrous  feats  which  we  behold. 
Know  then,  audacious  improver !  that  a  spar  fi-amed  as  you  propose, 
possesses  only  a  fraction  of  the  strength  of  a  hollow  spar  of  equal  weight 
and  external  dimensions. 

Concerning  atonement  for  your  temerity,  I  recommend,  besides  sin- 
cere penitence,  protracted  fasting  and  prayer. 

Yours  very  truly, 

J.  Ebiosson. 

Ericsson  was  occasionally  made  the  victim  of  attempts  to 
bring  him  to  an  orthodox  frame  of  mind.  How  he  received 
such  well-meant  interference  with  his  liberty  of  action  and  be- 
lief is  shown  by  this  letter : 

New  York,  August  6,  1887. 

Mlss :  Captain  Ericsson  directs  me  to  inform  you  that  he  has 

worked  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days  in  the  year  for  upward  of 
forty  years.  During  that  period  he  has  devoted  more  time  to  the  study 
of  the  benevolent  attributes  and  wonderful  works  of  the  Creator  and 
Ruler  of  the  universe  than  you  have  spent  within  the  walla  of  religious 


RELIGIOUS   BELIEFS.  255 

houses.  Captain  Ericsson  accepts  your  imperfect  knowledge  of  the 
subject  as  an  apology  for  your  impertinence  in  writing  to  him  as  you 
have  done. 

Very  respectfully, 

S.  W.  Taylor,  Secretary. 

Though  Ericsson  had  a  horror  of  everything  that  seemed  to 
him  to  savor  of  cant,  he  was  always  respectful  to  sincere  belief, 
as  the  extracts  from  his  letters  here  given  will  show.  In  his 
liouse  was  set  up  an  altar  at  which  his  Catholic  servant  wor- 
shipped without  molestation,  and  when  the  zealous  ladies  of  a 
Protestant  Sunday-school  in  the  neighborhood  sought  to  entice 
her  daughter  from  her,  the  master  interfered,  insisting  that 
the  child  should  follow  her  mother's  faith  until  she  was  of  an 
age  to  judge  for  herself.  The  rector  who  called  one  Sunday 
to  urge  the  claims  of  the  school  found  the  great  engineer 
busied  at  his  drawing-desk,  and  ventured  upon  some  religious 
admonitions  appropriate  to  the  occasion.  He  was  answered  by 
very  pointed  inquiries  as  to  his  own  abstinence  from  labor  on 
the  day  of  rest,  and  an  argument  to  show  that  the  circum- 
stances did  not  alter  the  cases.  To  the  credit  of  this  divine, 
be  it  said,  that  when  later  on  the  body  of  John  Ericsson  lay 
awaiting  its  burial  he  hastened  to  place  his  church  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  friends  of  the  dead. 

Ericsson  must  have  been  baptized  into  the  Lutheran  Church, 
but  his  nearest  approach  to  religious  observances  was  in  his 
election  to  honorary  membership  in  the  Swedish  Church  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  established  in  New  York  in  1865,  and  his 
selection  as  one  of  the  trustees  of  the  church.  In  response  to 
an  appeal  for  his  assistance  in  purchasing  the  church  building 
in  East  Twenty-second  Street  he  contributed  a  thousand  dol- 
lars, and  wrote,  November  1,  1865,  to  say :  "  It  will  afford  me 
great  pleasure  to  forward  the  interests  of  the  Swedish  Church 
in  New  York. .  Please,  therefore,  use  my  name  in  the  manner 
you  propose.  I  will  also  cheerfully  contribute  means  to  a  rea- 
sonable amount  in  furtherance  of  your  important  plan." 

His  relations  to  this  church  as  a  member  do  not  appear, 
however,  to  have  gone  beyond  pleasant  responses  to  occasional 
applications  from  the  good  ladies  of  the  congregation  for  help 
in  carrying  on  the  various  enterprises  requiring  the  issue  of 


256  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSOX. 

tickets,  for  which  the  brethren  were  expected  to  find  sale. 
JJrother  Ericsson  was  always  to  be  depended  upon  in  this  way , 
and  if,  as  a  trustee,  he  was  not  very  punctual  in  attendance  at 
board  meetings,  he  was  looked  to  with  confidence  for  advice 
and  assistance  when  the  occasion  seemed  to  demand  it.  TVlien 
in  1S69  the  church  suffered  the  lose  of  $3,000  by  the  defalca- 
tion of  its  treasurer,  the  facts  were  set  before  Ericsson  as  due 
to  him  as  trustee,  "  though  not  acting  as  such,  and  as  so  liberal 
a  contributor  to  the  treasury  of  the  church."  A  letter  sent 
by  him  to  its  pastor  will  show  that  Trustee  Ericsson  had  pro- 
nounced views  on  at  least  one  subject  of  importance  in  adminis- 
tering the  affairs  of  the  church.  Through  the  medium  of  his 
secretary,  he  said : 

Captain  Ericsson  has  received  yonr  honored  communication  of  Sep)- 
tember  7tb,  and  desires  me  to  state  in  reply,  that  he  cannot  see  the  pro- 
priety in  asking  American  citizens  to  pay  the  debt  incurred  by  the 
Swedish  congregation  of  Gustaf  Adolph's  Church.  You  need  not  be 
informed  that  it  is  the  invariable  mle  in  the  United  States  that  con- 
gregations ■who  undertake  to  build,  or  purchase,  churches  must  depend 
on  their  own  resources.  Obviously,  other  denominations  of  different 
creed  cannot,  under  any  circumstances  whatever,  be  called  upon  to 
defray  your  expenses  in  the  manner  you  propose.  Captain  Ericsson, 
under  such  circumstances,  desires  to  express  emphatically  his  disinclina- 
tion to  second  the  course  you  have  decided  to  pui-sue  in  regard  to  the 
debt  incurred  by  the  congregation  of  Gustaf  Adolph's  Chui-ch. 

Evidently  Captain  Ericsson  was  better  informed  on  engi- 
neering matters  than  as  to  the  custom  of  American  congrega- 
tions  in  seeking  pecuniary  aid  beyond  their  own  membership. 

"Whatever  Ericsson  did  or  did  not  believe  found  frank  ex- 
pression on  necessary  occasion,  but  he  never  sought  to  disturb 
others  with  his  donbts.  lie  certainly  did  observe  most  thor- 
oughly the  doctrine  of  "  laborare  est  orare,"  and  he  held  with 
Seneca  that  "the  first  petition  we  are  to  make  to  Almighty 
God  is  for  a  good  conscience,  the  next  for  health  of  mind, 
and  then  of  body.''  Disbelief  in  any  life  beyond  what  he  saw 
was  with  him  the  stimulus  to  increased  exertion,  that  he  might 
benefit  his  race  to  the  utmost  of  his  great  ability.  Creeds  that 
would  bind  his  benevolent  purposes  within  the  limitations  of 
stated  methods  might  be  of  service  to  others ;  they  were  not 


RELIGIOUS  BELIEFS.  257 

for  him.  He  loved  work,  not  for  its  own  sake  solely,  but  be- 
cause through  its  means  he  was  able  to  serve  his  fellow  men. 
As  his  countryman,  Swedenborg,  would  have  said:  He  was 
"  in  the  love  of  use  for  the  sake  of  use." 

I  have  failed  of  mj  purpose  if  I  have  not  shown  in  this 
narrative  how  faithful  John  Ericsson  was  to  his  altruistic  be- 
lief. It  seems  impossible  that  any  one  man  could  have  ac- 
complislied  witliin  the  compass  of  a  single  lifetime  what  he 
accomplished  ;  identifying  himself  in  so  many  ways  with  the 
mechanical  changes  that  have  separated  the  Kineteenth  Century 
so  widely  from  all  that  preceded  it,  and  opened  a  new  world  of 
thought,  and  interest,  and  sympathy,  until  "a  mystic  band  of 
brotherhood  makes  all  men  one  "  to  a  degree  that  shames  the 
past,  and  stimulates  the  utmost  hopes  for  the  future. 

Is  it  not  to  the  workers  rather  than  to  the  talkers  that  we  owe 
these  hopeful  changes  ?     True,  human  development  is  progres- 
sive, and  all  that  has  been  is  involved  in  what  is ;  yet,  so  far  as 
appears,  the  mechanical  accomplishment  of  a  single  century  has 
done  more  than  the  preaching  of  eighteen  centuries  to  destroy 
insular  prejudice,  and  to  bring  men  together  in  human  sym- 
pathy.    The  practical  nature  of  Ericsson's  mind  made  it  im- 
possible for  him  to  accept  shadowy  impressions  for  positive 
beliefs,  about  which  he  was  free  to  dogmatize  ;  yet  who  has 
done  more  than  he  to  realize  the  Christian  ideal  of  a  universal 
brotherhood,  to  formulate  Tennyson's  conception  of  "the  parlia- 
ment of  man,  the  federation  of  the  world  ?  "     It  is  not  state- 
craft, nor  even  military   genius,  that   has  made   the   United 
States,  for  example,   a   possibility  ;  it  is  engineering  ability. 
The  bonds  that  hold  us  in  indissoluble  unity  were  forged  in 
the  workshops  of  craftsmen.     It  is  the  railroads,  the  steam- 
boats, and  the  telegraph  that  bind  the  Pacific  States  to  those 
on  the  Atlantic  shore ;  the  cities  on  the  Gulf  to  those  that  bor- 
der our  great  lakes.     It  was  the  Pacific  Railroad  that  solved 
the  vexed  Indian  question,  and  erased  from  the  map  the  "  great 
American  desert,"  dividing  the  East  from  the  West ;  just  as 
the  Trans- Caucasian  Railroad  of  Russia  has  transformed  the 
wastes  of  central  Asia  into  cotton-fields,  and  the  murderous 
fanatics  of  Merv  and  Bokhara  into  peaceful  subjects  of  the 
White  Czar. 

Vol.  II.— 17 


258  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

Ericsson  was  in  the  habit  of  jotting  down  on  odd  bits  of 
paper  the  mechanical  suggestions  that  dropped  upon  him  by 
the  way,  and  among  his  manuscripts  are  numerous  memoranda 
of  this  sort,  with  the  dates  and  the  hour  of  the  day  when  tlie 
drawing  was  made,  often  far  in  tlie  evening.  This  subordina- 
tion to  the  conditions  under  which  he  worked,  no  doubt  ex- 
plains in  a  measure  his  impatience  of  suggestion,  and  his  ab- 
solute insistence  upon  strict  adherence  to  his  drawings.  He 
never  seemed  to  have  any  cariosity  to  examine  his  work  after 
it  had  left  his  hands,  and  never  cared  to  receive  a  report  as  to 
the  practical  working  of  his  machinery,  lie  declined  a  request 
coming  from  Captain  Fox  immediately  after  the  Monitor  and 
Merrimac  affair,  that  he  should  visit  Hampton  Roads  and  in- 
spect his  vessel ;  and  he  never  went  aboard  the  Dentroyer  but 
once,  and  then  it  was  in  search  of  his  assistant,  whose  prolonged 
absence  disquieted  him. 

"  Did  you  ever  hear  of  Xapoleon's  attending  a  company 
drill  ? "  he  once  answered,  when  asked  why  he  was  not  present 
at  the  trial  of  one  of  his  novel  pieces  of  machinery.  It  was  his 
office  to  conceive,  to  plan,  to  lay  out  the  work  ;  others  must 
execute,  and  see  to  the  accurate  carrying  out  of  his  instructions. 
Still  he  was  quite  capable  of  supervising  when  necessary,  as  his 
attention  to  the  details  of  work  upon  the  Princeton  and  the 
original  Monitor  show. 

Ericsson's  portrait  shows  that  "  massive  breadth  across  the 
lower  part  of  the  forehead  usually  observed  in  men  of  eminent 
constructive  skill."  He  had  remarkable  capacity  for  reasoning 
a  priori  as  to  the  conditions  he  had  to  meet  in  solving  a  given 
problem,  and  providing  for  these  conditions  without  waiting 
for  the  slow  processes  of  experiment  to  instruct  him  as  to  liis 
methods.  "  The  combination  of  that  faculty  of  the  imagina- 
tion which  we  call  invention,  with  the  experience,  the  science, 
and  the  caution  which  are  the  main  qualifications  of  successful 
engineers,"  says  John  Bourne,  "is  a  combination  at  once  rare 
and  precious ;  and,  like  the  talents  of  a  great  general,  it  may 
become  a  power  in  the  state  that  will  influence  its  future  des- 
tinies. Henceforth  wars  will  be  determined,  not  so  much  by  a 
preponderance  of  muscle,  as  by  a  preponderance  of  brain  ;  and 
the  example  of  Ericssou  shows  how  much  may  be  done  by  one 


RELIGIOUS   BELIEFS.  259 

man  to  overturn  existing  systems  of  naval  warfare,  and  to  com- 
pel all  nations  to  introduce  others  of  greater  efficacy." 

Until  the  era  of  machinery  man  was  dominated  by  nature, 
and  all  of  his  thoughts,  all  of  his  prejudices,  all  of  his  aspirations 
were  limited  by  the  narrow  range  of  his  experience  and  by  his 
isolation  from  the  rest  of  the  world.  If  such  men  as  Ericsson 
could  have  taken  advantage  of  the  conditions  they  created, 
what  could  they  not  have  accomplished  !  It  is  they  who  have 
opened  the  way  for  Edison  and  his  work ;  who  have  trained 
commercial  men  and  commercial  ideas  to  comprehend  the  un- 
limited possibilities  of  machinery.  It  is  they  who  have  stemmed 
and  turned  the  tide  of  the  public  sentiment  that  drove  Fitch  to 
suicide,  that  overwhelmed  Fulton  with  ridicule  and  saddened 
his  life,  that  discouraged  and  thwarted  the  efforts  of  Oliver 
Evans.  The  language  that  assailed  Fulton  was,  he  tells  us, 
"  uniformly  that  of  scorn,  or  sneer,  or  ridicule.  The  loud 
laugh  often  rose  at  my  expense ;  the  dry  jest,  the  wise  calcula- 
tion of  losses  and  expenditures,  the  dull  but  endless  repetition 
of  '  Fulton's  folly.'  IS^ever  did  a  single  encouraging  remark,  or 
bright  hope,  or  warm  wish,  cross  my  path." 

Ericsson's  experience  was  similar  to  this,  and  he  was  halted 
midway  in  his  progress  toward  success,  and  had  the  unde- 
served stigma  of  failure  put  upon  enterprises  that  needed  only 
the  favoring  breath  of  popular,  or  at  least  of  professional,  accept- 
ance to  secure  for  them  universal  approval.  There  was  no 
possibility  of  ideal  perfection  sufficient  to  secure  currency  for 
some  of  his  inventions  at  the  time  they  were  made.  The  in- 
ventor of  half  a  century  or  more  ago — even  more  than  now — 
was  not  merely  required  to  construct  practicable  machines  ;  he 
was  compelled  to  reorganize  opinions,  to  combat  prejudices,  to 
destroy  vested  interests  most  tenacious  of  life,  before  he  could 
BO  much  as  secure  for  himself  a  hearing.  Particularly  was  this 
the  case  with  a  man  whose  ideas  ran  counter  to  official  predi- 
lections, and  who  presented  himself  as  a  disturber  of  the  sacred 
rights  of  professional  routine. 


CHAPTER  XXXVL 

THE  SUN  MOTOR. 

Presentation  of  the  Rumford  Medals. — Ericsson  Begins  His  Investiga- 
tions into  Solar  Radiation. — His  Theory  as  to  the  Influence  of 
River  Currents. — He  Invents  His  Sun  Motor. — Its  Prospective  In- 
fluence in  Changing  the  Seat  of  Empire. — Applies  the  Solar  Engine 
to  Use  with  Gas.— Profits  of  this  Invention  Exceed  the  8100,000 
Spent  on  Solar  Investigation. 

MORE  was  involved  in  the  contest  in  the  American  Acade- 
my of  Arts  and  Sciences,  referred  to  in  Chapter  XIY., 
than  the  single  question  of  bestowing  the  Rumford  medals 
upon  John  Ericsson.  The  argument  was  not  only  for  a  recog- 
nition of  his  merits,  but  against  an  interpretation  of  the  pur- 
poses of  the  founder  of  the  prize,  so  narrow,  that  in  sixty-six 
years  only  one  person  had,  in  the  opinion  of  abstract  science, 
been  found  worthy  of  its  receipt.  Following  the  award  to 
Ericsson  in  1862,  it  was  granted  in  1S63  to  Professor  Tread- 
well  for  his  improvement  in  the  manufacture  of  cannon  ;  to 
Alvan  Clark  for  his  achromatic  telescope ;  in  1S69  to  George 
H.  Corliss  for  his  steam-engine,  and  in  1871  to  Joseph  Harrison 
for  his  steam-boilers.  Since  then  it  has  been  given  to  L.  M. 
Rutherford  for  improvements  in  astronomical  photography, 
and  to  John  W.  Draper,  J.  AVillard  Gibbs,  H.  A.  Rowland, 
and  S.  P.  Langley,  for  their  several  researches  in  radiant  ener- 
gy, thermo-dynamics,  light,  and  heat. 

The  storm  aroused  by  the  contest  over  Ericsson  seems  to 
have  been  followed  by  a  ground-swell  of  discontent,  for  there 
was  a  noticeable  departure  in  his  case  from  the  courteous  cus- 
tom attending  the  transfer  of  the  gold  and  silver  medals  to  the 
custody  of  the  recipient.  It  is  usual  to  distinguish  the  occasion 
with  an  address  before  the  assembled  members  of  the  Acad- 
emy, and  to  listen  to  a  response.     Possibly  Ericsson's  absorp- 


THE  SUN  MOTOR.  261 

tion  in  government  work  interfered  with  the  usual  order.  It 
was  certainly  made  the  excuse  for  a  departm-e  from  it,  and  he 
did  not  actually  receive  the  prize  until  four  years  after  he  be- 
came entitled  to  it.  Finally,  in  1866,  his  chief  champion  in 
tlie  Academy,  Professor  Ilorsford,  took  the  medals  to  New 
York,  and  a  company  of  gentlemen  gathered  to  witness  the 
ceremony  of  presentation.  Their  expectations  of  listening  to  a 
response  to  Professor  Ilorsford's  excellent  presentation  address 
were  disappointed,  however.  To  Mr.  Charles  Gould,  of  New 
York,  who  was  active  in  arranging  for  the  meeting,  the  Rum- 
ford  presentee  wrote,  saying  : 

New  York,  May  12,  1866. 

Dear  Sir  :  I  have  had  the  honor  to  receive  your  very  kind  invitation, 
but  I  regret  intensely  that  you  are  putting  yourself  to  trouble  and  in- 
curring expenses  on  my  account,  and  that  a  formal  presentation  of  the 
medals  has  been  arranged,  since  such  a  ceremony  is  wholly  repugnant  to 
my  ideas  and  taste.  I  am  practical  and  utilitarian.  I  have  expressed 
these  sentiments  most  emphatically  to  my  friend,  Mr.  Sargent,  at  whose 
suggestion  Professor  Horsford  so  kindly,  and  at  such  an  immense  sacri- 
fice of  time  and  convenience,  procured  the  medals ;  but  my  friend,  it 
now  appears,  has  not  presented  the  matter  to  the  Professor  as  he  told 
me  he  would.  Apart  from  my  utter  rejjugnance  to  the  proposed  cere- 
mony, I  yesterday  had  the  misfortune  to  hurt  my  back  so  seriously  as 
to  bring  on  an  old  complaint  originating  in  lifting  a  heavy  weight. 
Many  weeks  will  as  usual  elapse  before  I  can  get  out.  Please  therefore 
countermand  any  invitations  you  may  have  sent  out.  My  clerk,  the  bear- 
er of  this,  will  relieve  you  of  all  trouble  if  you  only  will  give  him  your 
instructions. 

Accept  my  warmest  thanks  for  your  generous  intention,  and  for  your 
kind  invitation  to  the  family  which  I  have  not. 

I  am,  dear  sir,  with  the  highest  esteem, 

Yours  gratefully  and  tnily, 

J.  Ericsson. 

To  Professor  Horsford  a  copy  of  this  letter  was  sent  with 
this  note  of  explanation  : 

New  York,  May  19, 1866. 

Mt  Dear  Sir  :  I  have  your  favor  kindly  inquiring  about  my  health. 
I  am  glad  to  say  that  I  this  time  got  over  the  effects  of  my  little  mis- 
hap without  trouble — violent  movements  of  the  body  being  all  I  have 
to  guard  against  for  a  short  time. 

I  deem  it  proper  to  send  you  a  copy  of  my  letter  to  Mr.  Gould,  on 
the  subject  of  the  kindly  intended  ceremony  of  presentation. 


262  LIFE    OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

As  Sargent  has  not  performed  his  promise  to  explain  fully  that  the 
recipient  of  your  distinguished  favors  is  an  eccentric  person,  whom  noth- 
ing can  induce  to  appear  in  public,  and  who  has  not  been  out  of  his 
house  in  five  years,  I  must  now  plead  my  own  cause,  and  beg  of  you  to 
spare  me  the  jmin  and  embarrassment  of  a  formal  presentation  of  the 
medals  which  cost  you  so  much  trouble  and  annoyance  in  obtaining  for 
Your  most  grateful  and  exceedingly  obliged, 

J.  Ericsson. 

There  were  some  extremely  sensitive  fibres  in  Ericsson's 
organization,  and  one  of  tliem  appears  to  have  been  touclied  in 
this  case.  Spontaneous  and  cordial  recognition  of  his  work  was 
always  welcome  ;  that  given  grudgingly  he  did  not  value.  To 
Professors  Horsford  and  Treadwell  for  their  warm,  and  finally 
successful,  advocacy  of  his  title  to  honor  all  praise  was  due,  but 
not  to  the  Academy  as  a  whole,  for  it  had  most  unwillingly 
recognized  his  merits.  It  would  have  been  much  more  gratify- 
ing to  him  if  Prof.  Ilorsford  could  have  spoken  for  all  of  his 
associates  when  he  said :  "  I  beg  to  congratulate  you  upon  the 
honors  you  have  won  through  a  life  of  research  and  experi- 
ment, devoted  to  the  prosperity  and  well-being  of  mankind,  in 
the  field  contemplated  by  the  illustrious  founder  of  the  Rum- 
ford  premium." 

The  award  of  the  Rumford  prize  gave  additional  zest  to 
studies  that  had  occupied  Ericsson's  attention  more  or  less  from 
the  commencement  of  his  professional  career.  The  develop- 
ment of  his  '•  caloric  engine  "  was  naturally  associated  with  in- 
quiries as  to  the  nature  of  solar  energy,  and  the  possibility  of  its 
direct  application  to  the  purposes  of  human  industry.  The 
distractions  of  a  busy  life  had  given  little  opportunity  for  inde- 
pendent investigation,  but  his  heart  was  in  this  work  from  the 
first,  and  as  soon  as  wealth  and  leisure  were  at  his  disposal  he 
determined  upon  a  systematic  inquiry  as  to  the  soundness  of 
the  current  theories  concerning  the  temperature  of  the  sun  and 
the  characteristics  of  solar  radiation.  He  resolved,  as  he  said, 
to  measure  for  himself  ''  the  intensity  of  that  big  fire  which  is 
hot  cnousrh  to  work  enoi;ines  at  a  distance  of  90,000,000  miles." 

lie  bei^an  his  investigations  as  soon  as  the  close  of  the 
American  War  of  Secession  relieved  him  from  his  responsibil- 
ity to  Government.     In  1S6S  he  had  made  sufficient  progress 


THE  SUN  MOTOR. 


263 


to  enable  him  to  write  several  letters  to  the  Dean  of  the 
Philosophical  Faculty  of  the  Swedish  University  of  Lund, 
briefly  stating  some  of  his  conclusions,  and  announcing  that  he 
had  in  preparation  a  work  in  which  they  would  be  more  fully 
set  forth.     Solar  radiation,  in  its  effect  upon  the  evaporation 


''etHrarajiaan 


Diagram  Showing  the  Action  of  the  Rivers  in  Carrying  Matter  toward  the  Equator. 

Section  of  the  earth  represented  as  a  perfect  sphere.    Mean  diameter,  7,912.41  etatnte  miles, 
Scale,  1,300  miles^l  inch. 


of  the  waters  of  the  sea  had,  as  he  stated  in  these  letters,  been 
with  him  a  subject  of  investigation  for  many  years. 

Abandoning  his  youthful  theories  as  to  the  principle  of  com- 
pensation in  nature,  Ericsson  in  the  end  went  so  far  in  an  op- 
posite direction  as  to  deny  the  accepted  doctrine,  that  "  every 
imaginable  action  affecting  the  rotation  of  the  globe  is  exactly 
compensated  by  the  effect  of  another  motion  in  an  opposite 
direction."     The  sun  so  affects  the  waters  of  the  earth  as  to 


264  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

disturb  this  scheme  of  compensation,  and  to  an  extent  suffi- 
cient to  account  for  the  observed  retardation  of  twelve  seconds 
in  a  century  in  the  earth's  rotary  velocity  without  the  influ- 
ence of  the  tidal  wave,  "  hitherto  greatly  overestimated."  *  It 
lifts  the  waters  from  the  seas  and  deposits  them  in  the  chan- 
nels of  great  rivers  flowing  toward  the  equator.  This  move- 
ment is  not  compensated  for  by  the  vapors  traversing  the 
earth's  atmosphere  in  an  opposite  direction,  nor  by  the  move- 
ment of  the  waters  in  the  channels  opening  toward  the  poles. 
Hence  there  is  a  tendency  to  retard  the  rotation  of  the  earth 
by  heaping  up  material  upon  its  equatorial  circumference ;  just 
as  the  motion  of  a  pendulum  is  retarded  by  swinging  it  through 
the  arc  of  a  larger  circle. 

Then  there  is  the  corresponding  movement  of  the  sediment 
carried  along  by  rivers  flowing  toward  the  equator.  The  Mis- 
sissippi, with  its  numerous  branches  and  its  thousand  lesser 
tributaries,  carries  equatorward,  to  a  mean  distance  of  1,500 
miles,  and  on  an  average  nearly  500  miles  farther  from  the 
centre  of  the  earth's  rotation,  a  mass  of  sediment  sufficient  by 
its  displacement  to  retard  the  rotation  of  the  earth  .00036  of  a 
second  in  a  century.  One  hundred  and  thirty-six  rivers  flow- 
ing toward  the  equator  exert  altogether  a  resisting  influence  of 
72.445  horse-power  in  each  second  of  time. 

The  influence  of  volcanic  action  in  removing  matter  farther 
from  the  centre  of  the  earth  was  also  calculated,  and  it  was 
shown  that  the  sun  rises  later  than  it  would  do  if  men  had  not 
been  busied  for  so  many  generations  in  erecting  on  the  surface 
of  the  earth  structures  composed  of  materials  taken  from  its 
depths.  Even  the  concussion  of  two  railroad  trains  lessens  the 
earth's  rotary  power  by  radiating  into  space  a  portion  of  its 
vis  viva.  The  calculated  effect  of  these  influences  is  so  infini- 
tesimal that  it  recalls  the  Hindoo  estimate  of  the  duration  of 
the  torments  of  hell,  as  measurable  by  the  time  required  to 
wear  away  the  rocky  range  of  the  Himalayas  with  a  gauze  veil 

•  Ericsson  devoted  much  time  to  the  study  of  tidal  action,  hoping  to  make 
it  available  for  the  production  of  mechanical  power.  Speaking  of  this  half  a 
century  later,  he  said,  "  I  had  to  abandon  my  various  schemes,  not  being 
able  to  compete  with  the  vast  eneriry  stored  up  in  lumps  of  coaL  But  the 
time  will  come  when  such  lumps  will  be  as  scarce  as  diamondfi." 


THE   SUN   MOTOR.  265 

brushed  against  it  once  in  a  hundred  million  jears.  Still,  the 
result  is  measurable. 

Ericsson's  demonstration  of  this  theory  is  too  elaborate  and 
technical  to  find  place  here.  It  resulted  in  the  invention  of  an 
apparatus  to  show  that  the  retarding  influence  of  waters  mov- 
ing in  narrow  channels  from  the  poles  toward  tlie  equator  is  not 
counterbalanced  by  the  movement  in  an  opposite  direction  of 
the  same  volume  of  water  in  the  form  of  vapor. 

These  interesting  speculations  were  briefly  alluded  to  in 
Ericsson's  communication  to  the  Lund  Faculty.  He  was  at 
that  time  too  busy  to  enter  fully  into  the  subject,  and  he  re- 
quested that  his  letters  be  considered  private.  He  wrote  be- 
cause he  was  anxious,  as  he  explained,  to  show  the  Philosophi- 
cal Faculty  of  the  University  that  other  subjects  than  machine 
building  had  occupied  his  time  during  the  long  absence  from 
his  native  country. 

The  year  in  which  his  communications  were  sent  to  Lund 
completed  the  second  centennial  of  the  opening  of  the  univer- 
sity in  166S.  Appropriate  ceremonies  marked  the  occasion, 
and  Ericsson  received  a  cordial  invitation  to  attend.  This  he 
was  compelled  to  decline,  but  he  sent  a  thesis  on  "  the  use  of 
solar  heat  as  a  mechanical  motor-power,"  and  received  from 
the  university  the  honorary  title  of  "  Philosophise  Doctor." 
His  thesis  was  published  in  a  volume  of  four  hundred  pages, 
containing  the  report  of  the  centennial  proceedings. 

Ericsson's  paper  attracted  great  attention,  as  it  announced 
the  invention  of  a  solar  motor  intended  to  supplement  the 
energies  of  coal  in  furnishing  mechanical  power.  "  I  cannot 
omit,"  said  he  in  this  paper,  "  adverting  to  the  insignificance 
of  the  dynamic  energy  which  the  entire  exhaustion  of  our  coal 
fields  would  produce,  compared  with  the  incalculable  amount  of 
force  at  our  command,  if  we  avail  ourselves  of  the  concentrated 
beat  of  the  solar  rays.  Already  Englishmen  have  estimated 
the  near  approach  of  the  time  when  the  supply  of  coal  will 
end,  although  their  mines,  so  to  speak,  have  just  been  opened. 
A  couple  of  thousand  years  dropped  in  the  ocean  of  time  will 
complete!}'  exhaust  the  coal  fields  of  Europe,  unless,  in  the 
meantime,  the  heat  of  the  sun  be  employed. 

His  experiments  showed  that  by  concentrating  with  his  ap- 


266  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

paratus  the  rays  of  the  sun  falling  upon  a  surface  ten  feet 
square,  he  could  evaporate  four  hundred  and  eightv-nine  cubic 
inches  of  water  in  an  hour.  Of  this  result,  he  said  :  "  Its  im- 
portance cannot  be  overestimated  when  we  reflect  that  such  an 
amount  of  evaporation  demonstrates  the  presence  of  sufficient 
heat  to  develop  a  force  capable  of  lifting  thirty-five  thousand 
pounds  one  foot  high  in  a  minute,  thus  exceeding  one  horse- 
power. As  an  incontrovertible  evidence  of  the  capability  of 
the  sun  to  develop  a  great  amount  of  heat  at  high  temperatures, 
this  result  is  probably  of  greater  importance  than  any  other 
physical  truth  practically  established. 

'*  It  is  true  that  the  solar  heat  is  often  prevented  from 
reaching  the  earth.  On  the  other  hand,  the  skilful  engineer 
knows  many  ways  of  laying  up  a  supply  when  the  sky  is  clear 
and  the  great  store-house  is  open,  where  the  fuel  may  be  ob- 
tained free  of  cost  and  transportation.  At  the  same  time  a 
great  portion  of  our  planet  enjoys  perpetual  sunshine.  The 
field  therefore  awaiting  the  application  of  the  solar  engine  is 
almost  beyond  computation,  while  the  source  of  its  power  is 
boundless.  "Who  can  foresee  what  influence  an  inexhaustible 
motive  power  will  exercise  on  civilization,  and  the  capability  of 
the  earth  to  supply  the  wants  of  our  race  ? " 

Ericsson  had  sought  to  lessen  the  enormous  waste  of  coal 
by  his  improvements  in  the  steam-engine,  and  by  his  substitu- 
tion of  heated  air  for  heated  water  as  a  means  of  converting 
into  motion  the  imprisoned  energies  of  the  coal  deposits.  He 
had  pleased  himself  with  the  fancy  that  in  the  "regenerator" 
of  his  hot-air  engine  he  had  successfully  applied  nature's  sup- 
posed principle  of  compensation  ;  but  a  new  school  of  philoso- 
phy had  arisen,  declaring  with  pitiless  logic  that  even  in  the 
workshop  of  the  universe  itself  the  expenditure  of  power  was 
accompanied  by  waste.  This  being  so  he  set  himself  at  work 
to  extend  at  least  to  eons  the  period  otherwise  measurable  by 
centuries,  and  to  awaken  to  a  new  life  the  regions  of  the  earth 
now  parched  with  solar  heat,  so  that  the  desert  might  "blossom 
abundantly,  and  rejoice  even  with  joy  and  singing."  The  not 
insignificant  amount  of  one  hundred  millions  of  tons  of  coal 
had  been  saved  during  the  last  century  by  using  solar  radiation 
in  making  salt,  and  still  greater  economies  would  result  from 


THE  SUN   MOTOR. 


267 


even  the  partial  use  of  solar  heat.  In  the  end  the  world  would 
be  forced  to  depend  upon  this  to  supply  the  energies  no  longer 
available  from  coal  fields  exhausted  by  improvident  use. 

On  July  9,  1875,  Ericsson  wrote  that  he  had  up  to  that 
time  constructed  and  started  seven  sun-motors.  In  the  issue  of 
Nature  for  January  3,  1884,  he  described  a  sun-motor  put  into 
operation  the  summer  before,  saying  of  it :  "  This  mechanical 
device  for  utilizing  the  sun's  radiant  heat  is  the  result  of  experi- 


Solar  Engine  Operated  by  the  Intervention  of  Steam.     Built  at  New  York,    1870. 


ments  conducted  through  a  series  of  twenty  years ;  a  succession 
of  experimental  machines  of  similar  general  design,  but  vary- 
ing in  details,  having  been  built  during  that  period." 

The  first  motor  was  constructed  in  New  York  in  1870,  and 
was  intended  as  a  present  to  the  French  Academy  of  Sciences. 
As  it  was  to  serve  also  as  a  meter  for  registering  the  amount  of 
Bteam  generated,  friction  was  reduced  to  a  minimum  by  mak- 
ing the  working  parts  of  unusual  dimensions.  In  the  machine 
as  finally  perfected  the  sun's  rays  were  concentrated  upon  a 


268  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

cvlindrical  lieater,  placed  longitudinally  above  a  trougii-shaped 
reflector.  An  examination  of  the  illustrations  will  show  the 
difference  between  the  earlier  and  the  later  machine.  In  the 
first,  a  surface  condenser  is  concealed  in  the  square  pedestal. 

Another  engine  of  different  construction  was  designed,  and 
two  or  three  experimental  engines  were  built  in  1874.  AVith 
reference  to  the  application  of  solar  heat  to  this  engine,  Erics- 
son wrote  to  Mr.  Delamater  thus  enthusiastically  : 

New  York,  October  22,  1873,  10  p.m. 

Deab  Harbt  :  The  world  moves — I  have  this  dav  seen  a  machine 
actuated  by  solar  heat  applied  directly  to  atmospheric  air.  In  less  than 
two  minutes  after  turning  the  reflector  toward  the  sun  the  engine  was 
in  operation,  no  adjustment  whatever  being  called  for.  In  five  min- 
utes maximum  speed  was  attained,  the  number  of  turns  being  by  far 
too  great  to  admit  of  being  counted. 

Having  found,  by  long  experience,  that  small  caloric  engines  cannot 
be  made  to  work  without  fail,  on  account  of  the  valves  getting  out  of 
order,  the  above  solar  engine  is  operated  without  valves,  and  is  therefore 
absolutely  reliable.  As  a  working  model,  I  claim  that  it  has  never  been 
equalled  ;  while  on  account  of  its  operating  by  a  direct  application  of 
the  sun's  rays  it  marks  an  era  in  the  world's  mechanical  history.  You 
shall  see  it  in  good  time. 

The  two-cylinder  caloric  engine,  to  be  operated  by  iron  whose  mole- 
cules have  been  put  in  violent  motion,  you  will  also  be  invited  to  see 

very  shortly.  Yours  truly, 

J.  Ericsson. 

The  sun-motor  required  a  large  reflecting  surface  to  gather 
sufficient  heat  from  the  rays  of  the  sun.  To  secure  this  at  the 
least  possible  expense  and  in  the  simplest  way,  a  light  frame 
of  wooden  staves  was  made,  iron  ribs  supporting  the  thin 
wood.  This  frame  was  lined  on  the  inside  with  flat  panes  of 
silvered  window  glass,  set  on  a  curve  and  held  down  by  the 
heads  of  small  screws  tapped  into  the  ribs  of  the  frame-work. 

In  France,  M.  Tellier  had  undertaken  to  obtain  power  by 
the  direct  application  of  solar  heat  without  using  reflecting 
mirrors,  but  Ericsson  used  mirrors  giving  1,850,000  foot- 
pounds per  hour,  with  100  square  feet  of  surface,  while  Tellier 
developed  only  43,360  foot-pounds  per  hour,  with  an  exposure 
of  215  square  feet  of  surface.  The  solar  engine  of  another 
French  inventor,  Mouchut,  was  condemned  after  investigation 


THE   SUN   MOTOR. 


269 


by  the  French  Government,  because  his  silver-lined  curved 
metallic  reflectors  were  too  expensive,  could  not  be  made  on 
a  scale  snflicient  to  meet  the  demands  of  commerce,  and  be- 
came tarnished  and  ineffective  after  exposure  for  a  few  hours. 
Ericsson  originally  used  thin  metallic  plates  in  his  reflector; 
he  subsequently  adopted  silvered  glass,  as  this  was  cheap  and 
durable,  and  it  could  be  cleaned  like  any  mirror  with  an  ordi- 


Ericsson's  Sun   Motor,   Erected  at  New  York,    i883. 

nary  feather-brush.  The  radiator  or  reflector  was  set  on  a  pivot 
so  that  it  could  be  revolved  and  inclined  at  any  desired  angle, 
a  pull  of  five  pounds  being  suflicient  to  move  it". 

Tlie  practical  estimate  was  ten  square  feet  of  reflector  for 
one  horse-power.     Taking  this  for  a  basis,  Ericsson  said : 

Those  regions  of  the  earth  which  suflfer  from  an  excess  of  solar  heat 
will  ultimately  derive  benefits  resulting  from  an  unlimited  command  of 


270  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

motire  power,  which  will  to  a  great  extent  compensate  for  disadvantages 
hitherto  supposed  not  to  be  counterbalanced  by  any  good. 

There  is  a  rainless  region  extending  from  the  northwest  coast  of 
Africa  to  Mongolia,  nine  thousand  miles  in  length,  and  nearly  one 
thousand  miles  wide.  Besides  the  North  African  deserts,  this  region  in- 
cludes the  southern  coast  of  the  Mediterranean  east  of  the  Gulf  of 
Cabes,  Ui^per  Egypt,  the  eastern  and  part  of  the  western  coast  of  the 
Red  Sea,  part  of  Syria,  the  eastern  part  of  the  countries  watered  by  the 
Euphrates  and  Tigris,  Eastern  Arabia,  the  greater  part  of  Persia,  the  ex- 
treme western  part  of  China,  Thibet,  and,  lastly,  Mongolia.  In  the 
western  hemisphere.  Lower  California,  the  table-land  of  Mexico  and 
Guatemala,  and  the  west  coast  of  South  America,  for  a  distance  of  more 
than  two  thousand  miles,  suflfer  from  continuous  intense  radiant  heat. 

We  learn  that  22, 300, 000  solar  engines,  each  of  100  horse- power, 
could  be  kept  in  constant  operation,  nine  hours  a  day,  by  utilizing  only 
that  heat  which  is  now  wasted  on  the  assumed  small  fraction  of  land  ex- 
tending along  some  of  the  water-fronts  of  the  sunburnt  regions  of  the 
earth.  Due  consideration  cannot  fail  to  convince  us  that  the  rapid  ex- 
haustion of  the  European  coal-fields  will  soon  cause  great  changes  with 
reference  to  international  relations,  in  favor  of  those  countries  which  are 
in  possession  of  continuous  sun-power.  Upper  Egypt,  for  instance,  will, 
in  the  course  of  a  few  centuries,  derive  signal  advantage  and  attain  a 
high  political  position  on  account  of  her  perpetual  sunshine,  and  the 
consequent  command  of  unlimited  motive-power.  The  time  will  come 
when  Europe  must  stop  her  mills  for  want  of  coal.  Upper  Egypt,  then, 
with  her  never-ceasing  sun-power,  will  invite  the  European  manufact- 
urer to  remove  his  machinery  and  erect  his  mills  on  the  firm  ground 
along  the  sides  of  the  alluvial  plain  of  the  Nile,  where  an  amount  of 
motive-power  may  be  obtained  many  times  more  than  that  now  employed 
by  all  the  manufactories  of  Europe. 

Taken  in  connection  with  the  international  compacts  of  1890, 
following  the  opening  of  Africa,  this  statement  is  full  of  strik- 
ing portent.  Advancing  westward  from  the  ancient  East,  civ- 
ilization has  conquered  Europe;  has  possessed  itself  of  the 
American  hemisphere,  and  next,  under  the  lead  of  the  Anglo- 
American  Stanley,  is  found  pressing  from  all  sides  upon  the 
still  uncontrolled  savagery  of  Africa,  perhaps  to  reveal  still 
grander  possibilities  of  human  progress  in  that  undeveloped 
continent  where 

The  glorious  sun 
Stays  in  his  course,  and  plays  the  alchemist. 
Turning  with  splendor  in  his  precious  eye 
The  meagre  cloddy  earth  to  glittering  gold. 


THE   SUN  MOTOR.  271 

Stimulated  by  the  labors  of  Mouchot,  Ericsson,  and  others, 
William  Adams,  Deputy  Registrar,  High  Court,  Bombay,  India, 
made  a  series  of  experiments  in  that  tropical  climate  with  flat 
mirrors  such  as  Ericsson  used.  His  conclusion  was  that  a  com- 
bination of  such  reflectors  furnish  the  only  possible  means  of 
concentrating  solar  heat  for  practical  purposes,  and  that  silvered 
glass  is  the  best,  if  not  the  only,  available  reflecting  material. 

Archimedes  is  supposed  to  have  used,  in  setting  fire  to  the 
Roman  fleet  off  Syracuse,  a  combination  of  the  flat  steel  mirrors 
then  in  common  use.  Buffon,  with  such  a  combination  of  small 
flat  mirrors,  set  fire  to  a  plank  of  wood  at  a  distance  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  feet.  Concave  metallic  mirrors,  forty-seven 
inches  in  diameter,  made  by  Yillette,  a  French  artist  of  Lyons, 
melted  iron  ore  in  twenty-four  seconds,  cast  iron  in  sixteen  sec- 
onds, a  silver  sixpence  in  seven  and  one-half  seconds,  and  tin  in 
four  seconds.  An  emerald  was  melted  into  a  substance  like 
turquoise  stone,  and  a  diamond  weighing  four  grains  lost  seven- 
eighths  of  its  weight.  With  a  similar  mirror  Baron  Tschirn- 
hausen  caused  water  to  boil  immediately,  and  it  was  soon  evapo- 
rated. These  citations  from  numerous  similar  experiments  with 
email  reflectors,  indicate  the  possibilities  of  solar  concentration. 
Mr.  Adams  gives  an  interesting  account  of  his  own  experiments, 
showing  that  "  there  is  no  limit  whatever  to  the  extent  to 
which  solar  heat  can  be  concentrated  by  reflection  from  a  com- 
bination of  flat  mirrors."  *  In  a  letter  to  R.  B.  Forbes,  writ- 
ten September  21,  1878,  Ericsson  said  : 

Your  scheme  of  producing  fresh  water  by  evaporating  sea-water  by 
means  of  concentrated  solar  heat  is  impracticable,  on  account  of  the 
great  cost  of  the  needed  apparatus.  You  have  probably  read  the  state- 
ment of  Mr.  Adams,  of  India,  that  solar  heat  may  be  employed  as  an 
"  auxiliary  "  in  oiDerating  steam-engines.  The  fact  is,  however,  that 
although  the  heat  is  obtained  for  nothing,  so  extensive,  costly,  and  com- 
plex is  the  concentration  apparatus  that  solar  steam  is  many  times  more 
costly  than  steam  produced  by  burning  coal. 

To  an  attempt  to  store  up  solar  energy  Ericsson  devoted 
nearly  as  much  time  as  to  the  solar  motor,  but  no  satisfactory 

*  Solar  Heat  a  Substitute  for  Fuel  in  Tropical  Countries  for  Heating  Steam 
Boilers  and  other  Purposes.  By  William  Adams,  Deputy  Registrar,  High  Court, 
Bombay.     1878. 


272  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

result  is  recorded.  The  old  idea  of  filling  large  vessels  with 
compressed  air  was  considered,  but  this  was  found  wholly  inade- 
quate for  use  on  a  large  scale.  Under  a  clear  sky  his  solar 
engine  performed  its  functions  with  perfect  uniformity,  at  a 
velocity  of  two  hundred  and  forty  revolutions  per  minute. 
This  engine  was  moved  by  steam  generated  by  the  heat  of  the 
sun. 

An  illustration  in  this  volume  gives  a  perspective  view  of 
another  solar  engine  actuated  by  heated  air.  The  upper  end 
of  the  working  cylinder  is  heated  by  the  sun's  rays  concen- 
trated upon  it  by  a  curved  mirror.  There  is  a  working  piston 
and  an  exchange  piston  ;  one  connected  with  the  working- 
shaft  by  a  beam  and  a  connecting  rod  ;  the  other  by  a  bell- 
crank  and  a  connecting  rod.  A  space  is  left  between  the  ex- 
change piston  and  the  cylinder  in  which  it  works.  In  the 
passage  of  the  piston  downward  the  cold  air  from  below  rushes 
around  it  to  the  upper  end  heated  by  the  sun's  rays.  The 
rapid  change  in  the  air  thus  circulating  around  the  large  sur- 
face of  the  exchange  piston  and  the  inside  of  the  cylinder, 
keeps  the  working  piston  in  motion  ;  the  air  in  the  upper  end 
of  the  cylinder  being  heated  and  expanded,  and  that  below 
cooled  and  contracted.  Thus  the  exchange  piston  performs  the 
oflBce  of  a  regenerator.  The  engine,  therefore,  is  capable  of 
operating  for  a  considerable  time  by  exposing  the  upper  end 
of  the  cylinder  to  the  reflected  solar  lieat  during  a  few  minutes 
at  starting. 

By  continuous  exposure  to  the  concentrated  solar  rays,  the 
engine  performs  fully  four  hundred  turns  per  minute.  Con- 
centrated solar  radiation  supplies  heat  with  such  extraordinary 
rapidity  that  the  apparently  insufficient  amount  of  heating 
surface  presented  by  the  cylinder  proved  adequate,  notwith- 
standing the  great  speed  of  the  engine.  The  body  consisted 
of  a  I'udiator  fur  carrying  off  the  heat  which  was  not  taken 
up  by  the  circulating  air  during  the  motion  of  the  exchange- 
piston. 

To  Oscar  11. ,  King  of  Sweden  and  Norway,  Ericsson  sent, 
on  January  10,  1884,  an  account  of  his  solar  motor,  with  a 
pamphlet  containing  a  statement  of  his  opinions  as  to  the  best 
method  of  defending  the  harbors  of  the  United  States.     To  the 


THE   SUN   MOTOR.  273 

brief  letter  accompanying  these  the  King  made  answer  as  fol- 
lows: 

Royal  Palace  of  Stockholm,  January  28,  1884. 

My  Dear  John  Ericsson  :  I  have  read  with  great  interest  your  letter, 
for  which  I  thank  you  most  cordially.  The  description  of  the  apparatus 
for  concentrating  solar  heat  I  am  not  competent  to  judge  of,  my  knowl- 
edge of  details  being  insufficient  to  form  an  opinion  from  the  illustra- 
tion accompanying  the  letter,  but  your  renowned  name  is  sufficient  guar- 
antee of  its  importance,  especially  to  those  countries  which  suffer  from 
superfluity  of  radiant  heat.  I  have  also  perused  with  the  greatest  in- 
terest the  printed  document  accompanying  your  letter,  which  treats  the 
question  of  the  most  suitable  harbor  defence  for  the  United  States,  and 
have  referred  it  to  the  Department  of  Naval  Defence. 

It  is  my  heartiest  wish  that  your  experiments  with  the  Destroyer, 
the  results  of  which  are  expected  with  so  much  eagerness,  may  be  suc- 
cessful, and  that  you  may  find  your  plans  sufficiently  matured  to  enable 
me  to  send  an  officer  to  you  to  obtain  under  your  skilled  direction, 
knowledge  of  all  the  details  of  this  ingenious  war  machine. 

Expecting  further  communications  from  you  on  this  subject,  I  re- 
main, 

Yours  most  sincerely, 

OSOAR. 

To  Mr.  James  A.  Robinson,  Ericsson  wrote,  December  26, 
1873,  saying  : 

I  omitted  to  state,  when  you  called  to-day,  that  the  successful  opera- 
tion of  some  of  my  solar  engines  in  which  atmospheric  air  transmits  the 
energy  of  the  solar  heat,  some  time  ago  induced  me  to  apply  similar 
mechanism  to  caloric  engines.  I  accordingly  applied  the  new  move- 
ment to  a  24-inch  caloric  engine  cylinder  and  heater.  The  result  was 
greatly  increased  speed,  but  not  any  gain  in  actual  power  developed,  as 
ascertained  by  the  friction-brake.  I  am  not  willing,  however,  to  aban- 
don my  new  scheme,  although  not  longer  quite  sure  of  success. 

Adapting  another  form  of  my  solar  engine  to  a  small  domestic  motor, 
promises  better  results.  I  am  experimenting  with  a  large  model  en- 
gine which,  up  to  a  certain  power,  has  done  well.  At  any  rate,  it  affords 
me  delightful  occupation  during  the  hours  not  devoted  to  solar  obser- 
vations, torpedoes,  amphibic  projectiles,  monitors,  air-compressors,  tur- 
reted  gunboats,  cavalry  cannon,  etc. 

The  small  engine  here  referred  to  proved  a  great  success. 
Its  inventor  was  averse  to  patenting  it,  as  it  formed  part  of 
his  solar  apparatus ;  and  with  reference  to  this  he  had  said  in  a 
Vol.  II.— 18 


274 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 


published  letter  dated  New  York,  September  23, 1870,  "  I  shall 
not  apply  for  any  patent  rights,  and  it  is  my  intention  to  de- 
vote tlie  balance  of  my  professional  life  almost  exclusively  to  its 
completion.  Hence  my  anxiety  to  guard  against  legal  obstruc- 
tions being  interposed  before  perfection  of  detail  shall  have 
been  measurably  attained."  In  deference  to  the  request  of  his 
business  associates,  the  inventor  reluctantly  patented  its  appli- 
cation to  the  use  of  hot  air,  and  without  solicitation  gave  the 


Solar  Engine  Adapted  to  the  use  of  Hot  Air.     Patented  as  a  Pumping  Engine,    1880. 


patent  right  to  his  business  associates  of  the  firm  of  Delama- 
ter  &  Co.  Under  their  energetic  management  it  was  speedily 
brought  into  extensive  use.  Many  thousands  were  sold  within 
a  few  years,  and  used  for  pumping  water,  and  for  other  light 
work.  The  insufficiency  of  the  supply  of  water  has  brought 
them  into  extensive  use  in  New  York  City  for  forcing  water 


THE   StJN   MOTOR  275 

to  the  tops  of  tall  buildings.  The  little  motor  is  non-explosive, 
and  so  simple  in  its  operation  that  any  servant  who  can  light 
a  lamp  or  a  gas-jet  can  set  it  in  motion.  The  profits  upon  this 
chip  from  his  workshop  are  already  estimated  at  several  times 
the  amount  of  the  $100,000  expended  by  Ericsson  upon  the 
solar  investigations  leading  up  to  this  invention.  Its  his- 
tory furnishes  another  illustration  of  the  practical  nature  of 
John  Ericsson's  genius,  his  generosity,  and  his  indifference  to 
money. 

Writing  to  his  son  Hjalmar,  August  13,  1880,  Ericsson 
said,  concerning  the  engine  patented:  "It  is  a  true  copy  of  the 
sun-motor  when  steam  is  not  used,  the  gas  taking  the  place  of 
the  concentrated  solar  heat.  It  has  been  so  well  received  here, 
that  Delamater's  large  works  are  unable  to  build  as  fast  as 
orders  are  coming  in." 

With  this  engine  the  inventor  had  his  usual  experience. 
An  attempt  was  made  to  pirate  it  on  the  plea  that  the  con- 
struction of  the  experimental  engines  in  1874  constituted  an 
abandonment  of  the  patent  right.  In  a  letter  to  Nature  pub- 
lished August  2,  1888,  seven  months  before  his  death,  he  said: 


It  will  be  proper  to  mention  that  the  successful  trial  of  the  sun- 
raotor  attracted  the  special  attention  of  landowners  on  the  Pacific  coast, 
then  in  search  of  power  for  actuating  the  machinery  needed  for  irrigat- 
ing the  sunburnt  lands.  But  the  mechanical  details  connected  with  the 
concentration  at  a  single  point  of  the  power  developed  by  a  series  of 
reflectors,  was  not  perfected  at  that  time;  nor  was  the  investigation 
relating  to  atmospheric  diathermancy  sufficiently  advanced  to  deter- 
mine with  precision  the  retardation  of  the  radiant  heat  caused  by 
increased  zenith  distance.  Consequently  no  contracts  for  building  sun- 
motors  could  then  be  entered  into — a  circumstance  which  greatly  dis- 
couraged the  enterprising  Californian  agriculturists,  prepared  to  carry 
out  forthwith  an  extensive  system  of  irrigation.  In  the  meantime,  a  sim- 
ple method  of  concentrating  the  power  of  many  reflectors  at  a  given 
point  had  been  perfected,  while  retardation  of  solar  energy  caused  by 
increased  zenith  distance  had  been  accurately  determined,  and  found 
to  be  so  inconsiderable  that  it  does  not  interfere  with  the  development 
of  constant  solar  power  during  the  eight  hours  called  for. 

The  new  motor  being  thus  perfected,  and  first-class  manufacturing 
establishments  ready  to  manufacture  such  machines,  owners  of  the  sun- 
burnt lands  on  the  Pacific  coast  may  now  with  propriety  reconsider 
their  grand  scheme  of  irrigation  by  means  of  sun-power. 


276  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

In  another  letter  he  said:  "You  will  probably  be  surprised 
when  I  say  that  the  sun-motor  is  nearer  perfection  than  the 
steam-engine;  but  until  the  coal  mines  are  exhausted  its  value 
will  not  be  fully  acknowledged.  Nevertheless,  they  will  even 
now  use,  on  the  west  coast  of  South  America,  the  new  power 
whose  fuel  can  be  obtained  without  expense  or  charge  for 
transportation." 


CHAPTER   XXXYII. 

SCIENTIFIC  INVESTIGATIONS  AND  INVENTIONS. 

Experimental  Ai^paratus  for  Solar  Studies. — The  Centennial  Yolume. — 
Measurement  of  Solar  Energy. — Controversy  with  Father  Secchi. — 
Uncomplimentary  Opinion  of  Tyndall. — Contributions  to  Scientific 
Periodicals. — The  Lunar  Temperature. — Ericsson  a  Pioneer  in  Solar 
Physics. 

ERICSSON  wrote,  November  20, 1868,  to  two  officers  of  the 
Rojal  Society,  London,  Dr.  W.  Sharpey  and  Professor  G. 
G.  Stokes,  the  latter  a  recipient  of  the  Rumford  medal  bestowed 
by  the  Rumford  trust  in  England.  He  enclosed  an  extract 
from  an  essay  on  solar  heat,  gave  some  of  his  conclusions,  and 
said :  "  Having  successfully  constructed  several  experimental 
engines  actuated  by  the  sun's  radiant  heat,  and  fully  ascertained 
that  motive  power,  to  any  extent,  can  be  produced  by  employ- 
ing concentrated  solar  energy,  I  have  determined  to  investigate 
fully  the  subject  of  solar  heat.  For  this  purpose,  and  in  order 
to  facilitate  the  investigations,  I  have  erected  a  small  observa- 
tory over  a  substantial  building  some  sixty  feet  above  ground. 
And  in  order  to  still  further  facilitate  these  investigations,  the 
little  observatory  is  made  to  revolve  round  a  pivot ;  while  the 
table  that  supports  the  experimental  apparatus  is  kept  at  a 
proper  inclination  by  suitable  mechanism — hence  always  per- 
pendicular to  the  sun  during  experiments.''  Professor  Joseph 
Henrj',  President  of  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  "Wash- 
ington, was  also  written  to  on  the  same  subject. 

In  an  article  appearing  in  Engineering^  November  27, 
1868,  Ericsson  criticised  the  conclusion  of  other  observers  rela- 
tive "  to  the  temperature  and  inconceivable  power  of  the  sun 
to  develop  heat,"  as  based  wholly  on  the  indications  furnished 
by  insufficient  investigation  with  imperfect  apparatus.  He  an- 
nounced the  completion  of  several  experimental  engines  to  be 


278  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

actuated  by  solar  heat,  and  promised  further  details  of  his  ex- 
periments at  a  later  date.  April  7,  1870,  he  wrote  to  Pro- 
fessor Joseph  Henry  again,  acknowledging  the  receipt  of  an 
invitation  to  attend  the  session  of  the  National  Academy  of 
Sciences,  and  stating  that  he  was  obliged  to  postpone  until 
another  year  his  purpose  of  submitting  a  paper.     He  added: 

You  will  be  interested  to  learn  that  I  have  just  completed  an  instru- 
ment made  to  test  solar  attraction  and  the  earth's  density,  the  principal 
part  of  which  consists  of  a  solid  cast-iron  ball  eleven  inches  in  diameter, 
highly  polished,  floating  in  a  cistern  filled  with  mercury.  The  ball,  which 
weighs  1,272,060  grains,  is  readily  pulled  across  the  surface  of  the  fluid 
metal  with  a  force  less  than  Ys^^rm  P^i"*  of  the  stated  weight;  the  speed 
during  the  transit  across  the  cistern  being  quite  perceptible  to  the  eye. 
Had  Maskelyne  and  James  possessed  this  instrument  they  would  have 
escaped  the  troublesome  application  of  the  plumb-line,  besides  obtain- 
ing a  result  freed  from  the  unavoidable  errors  of  astronomical  observa- 
tion in  determining  the  deviation  of  the  line  from  the  vertical. 

This  reference  is  to  the  experiments  made  nearly  one  hun- 
dred years  earlier  by  Xevil  Maskelyne,  astronomer  royal  at 
Greenwich,  to  determine  the  mean  density  of  the  earth  by 
measuring  the  attraction  upon  the  plumb-line  of  the  Scottish 
mountain  of  Schiehallion. 

On  July  15,  1870,  Ericsson  began  the  publication  of  a  series 
of  articles  appearing  in  the  London  periodicals  Engineering  and 
Nature,  between  July  15,  1870,  and  February  6,  1873.  They 
averaged  nearly  one  a  month,  and  numbered  twenty-nine  in  all. 
Six  other  articles  appeared  in  Nature  for  October  14  and  De- 
cember 9,  1875;  January  3  and  September  11,  1884;  July  15, 
1886,  and  August  2,  1888.  These  articles  furnished  the  ma- 
terial for  thirty-seven  of  the  forty-five  chapters  of  the  volume 
entitled  "Contributions  to  the  Centennial  Exhibition,"  pub- 
lished in  1876.  The  first  part  of  this  work  is  in  substance  a 
treatise  on  radiant  heat,  solar  dynamics,  and  sun-motors.  In 
the  preface  the  author  said:  "The  commissioners  of  the  Cen- 
tennial Exhibition  having  omitted  to  invite  me  to  exhibit  the 
results  of  my  labors  connected  with  mechanics  and  physics,  a 
gap  in  their  record  of  material  progress  exceeding  one-third  of 
a  century  has  been  occasioned.  I  have  therefore  deemed  it 
proper  to  publish  a  statement  of  my  principal  labors  during 


SCIENTIFIC  INVESTIGATIONS   AND  INVENTIONS.  279 

the  last  third  of  the  century,  the  achievements  of  which  the 
promoters  of  the  Centennial  Exhibition  have  called  upon  the 
civilized  world  to  recognize." 

In  1877,  Ericsson  wrote  to  the  President  of  the  Italian 
Royal  Academy  of  Sciences  that  he  proposed  to  compete  for 
the  prize  founded  by  Dr.  Bressa,  but  this  purpose  was  aban- 
doned, and  in  place  of  the  intended  essay  two  copies  of  his  pub- 
lished volume  were  sent.  The  concluding  portion  of  this  vol- 
ume, about  one-third  in  all,  is  devoted  to  a  description  of  his 
principal  mechanical  inventions  during  the  period  of  his  resi- 
dence in  America,  from  1839  to  187G,  the  date  of  its  publication. 
The  work  is  a  quarto  volume  of  six  hundred  and  sixty-four 
pages,  printed  on  heavy  plate  paper,  and  illustrated  by  sixty- 
seven  sheets  of  the  very  finest  specimens  of  mechanical  drawing 
and  engravings.  Its  author  justly  prided  himself  not  only 
upon  his  skill  as  a  draughtsman,  but  on  his  judgment  as  a  critic 
of  mechanical  engraving.  Some  three  hundred  copies  of  this 
book  were  printed,  at  an  expense  of  over  thirty  thousand  dol- 
lars, and  these  were  distributed  to  public  libraries,  to  men  of 
scientific  reputation,  and  to  a  few  personal  friends.  One  was 
sent  to  the  judges  of  the  International  Exhibition,  Group  XXI., 
and  a  polite  acknowledgment  was  returned  signed  by  all  of 
the  judges.  Professor  S.  P.  Langley  wrote,  September  14, 
1877,  saying: 

I  have,  after  admiring  the  book  as  a  rarely  complete  illustration  of 
what  the  printer's  and  engraver's  art  can  do  in  aiding  the  exposition  of 
scientific  results,  been  impressed  with  the  value  of  your  work  from  the 
purely  scientific  point  of  view.  The  most  complete  disproof  of  the 
trustworthiness  of  Dulong  and  Petit's  "law;"  the  vindication  of  the 
earlier  and  discredited  generalization  of  Newton's;  the  convincingly  clear 
statement,  for  the  first  time,  of  what  seems  to  me  surely  the  true  means 
to  arrive  at  the  heat  received  by  the  earth  from  the  sun  (means  even 
now  but  partly  recognized);  these,  with  the  conclusions  drawn  from  the 
great  body  of  most  thoroughly  considered  and  carefully  executed  ex- 
periments, bearing  on  the  great  subject  of  radiant  solar  energy;  all 
form  contributions  to  the  sum  of  human  knowledge,  of  a  value  which  no 
competent  reader  can  fail  to  appreciate. 

A  Swedish  edition  of  the  w^ork  was  projected,  and  as  Erics- 
son had  never  acquired  facility  in  the  use  of  scientific  termi- 


280  LIFE  OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

nology  in  his  native  language,  he  entrusted  the  work  of  trans- 
lation to  another.  The  result  was  not  satisfactor}',  and  after 
the  translation  was  rather  more  than  one-half  completed  he 
sent  instructions  to  his  son  Hjalmar,  under  whose  direction  the 
Swedish  edition  was  preparing,  to  go  no  further  with  it. 

Three  general  theories  as  to  the  origin  of  solar  heat  have 
been  current.  One  ascribes  it  to  chemical  action  or  combus- 
tion, but  Professor  Tjndall  had  shown  that  this  involves  the 
speedy  dissipation  of  the  sun  into  space,  and  that  a  mass  of 
coal  the  size  of  the  sun,  which  is  a  body  having  the  specific 
gravity  of  coal,  would,  if  supplied  with  unlimited  oxygen,  be 
entirely  consumed  in  six  thousand  years  in  producing  existing 
solar  energ}'. 

A  second  theory  is  that  solar  heat  is  the  result  of  friction 
following  the  sudden  arrest  of  the  motion  of  showers  of  me- 
teors, precipitated  into  the  sun  with  the  enormous  velocity  im- 
parted by  the  constantly  increased  attraction.  This  theory  of 
meteoric  showers  is  met  by  the  calculation  that  a  mass  equiva- 
lent to  that  of  our  moon,  must  have  its  motion  arrested  by  the 
sun  and  converted  into  heat  to  supply  working  force  for  a  sin- 
gle year ;  that  our  earth,  precipitated  against  the  sun  at  the 
enormous  velocity  the  sun's  attraction  would  create,  would  fur- 
nish heat  for  less  than  one  century  ;  and  with  Yenus,  Mercury, 
and  Mars  added,  the  solar  fires  of  our  system  could  be  kept 
aglow  for  less  than  a  thousand  years — a  period  counted  in  the 
annals  of  creation  "  but  as  yesterday  when  it  is  passed,  as  a 
watch  in  the  night."  Neptune,  Uranus,  Saturn,  and  Jupiter 
might  follow  in  their  order,  and  still  only  the  comparatively 
insignificant  period  of  45,558  years  would  be  covered  by  the 
entire  supply  of  heat  our  planetary  system  could  thus  furnish. 

Rejecting,  then,  the  chemical  and  meteoric  theories,  Ericsson 
accepted,  as  the  ground-work  of  his  investigations,  the  hypoth- 
esis that  the  sun's  heat  results  from  the  contraction  which  was 
begun  when  that  planet  was  a  nebulous  mass  of  phosphores- 
cent vapor,  and  is  to  be  continued  until  Byron's  dream  of 
darkness  is  realized,  and  the  sun  becomes  "  a  lump  of  death, 
a  chaos  of  hard  clay."  He  estimated  that  a  yearly  shrinkage  of 
124.65  feet  is  sufficient  to  account  for  the  enormous  energy 
produced.     The  solar  force  expended  yearly  upon  our  earth  is 


SCIENTIFIC   INVESTIGATIONS   AND   INVENTIONS.         281 

equivalent  to  the  power  of  217,000,000  thousand  horse-power 
engines,  working  day  and  night,  but  this  is  a  mere  drop  in  the 
bucket  compared  with  the  enormous  outpouring  of  energy. 
With  it  all,  the  yearly  reduction  in  the  diameter  of  the  sun  is 
only  one  ten-thousandth  in  eighteen  hundred  and  five  years, 
and  one-tenth  in  something  over  two  million  years. 

The  heat  emitted  by  each  foot  of  solar  surface  will  not  les- 
sen, Ericsson  argued,  but  as  the  area  of  the  sun  decreases  the 
sum  of  its  energy  will  diminish  accordingly.  Tropical  inten- 
sity on  our  globe,  now  estimated  at  67.2  degrees,  will  be  reduced 
in  two  thousand  centuries  to  54.4:  degrees  Fahrenheit ;  and  two 
million  years  ago  the  temperature  produced  by  radiation  from 
the  larger  sun  of  that  day  was  81  degrees.  A  further  demon- 
stration shows  "  that,  although  the  efficiency  of  the  sun  during 
the  past  may  be  measured  by  hundreds  of  millions  of  years,  its 
future  efficiency  will  be  of  comparatively  brief  duration,"  though 
"  the  diminution  of  the  temperature  produced  by  solar  radiation 
has  not  exceeded  ,027,  or  Jy  degree  Fahrenheit  since  the  erec- 
tion of  the  Pyramids," 

To  Professor  Langley,  Ericsson  wrote,  January  21,  1877  : 
"  I  notice  that  you  are  very  guarded  in  asserting  that  the  heat 
transmitted  to  the  earth  is  actually  reduced  by  sun-spots.  On 
that  point  I  have  no  doubt,  since  sun-spots  are  the  result  of 
checked  vertical  circulation  within  the  solar  mass.  Any  such 
check  must  inevitably  diminish  the  heat  transferred  from  the 
central  regions  to  her  solar  surface,  hence  reduced  radiation 
must  follow."  In  a  letter  to  another  correspondent  he  de- 
scribed radiant  heat  as  "  mechanical  power  rendered  available 
when  the  constant  ponderable  matter,  not  perfectly  transpa- 
rent, is  presented  to  its  action." 

Ericsson's  solar  investigations,  begun  in  1861:,  were  contin- 
ued up  to  the  time  of  his  death.  With  his  rare  ingenuity, 
practically  unlimited  control  of  money,  and  facilities  for  me- 
chanical construction,  he  was  able  to  procure  whatever  ap- 
paratus he  required.  These  included  twenty-six  different  ma- 
chines illustrated  in  his  volume,  and  others  not  appearing 
there;  all  so  elaborate  in  design  and  workmanship  as  to  entitle 
them  to  the  distinction  of  permanent  inventions.  These  were 
evolved  from  scores  of  ruder    contrivances  consigned   to  the 


282  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

"scrap  heap"  as  soon  as  they  had  sen-ed  their  temporary  pur- 
pose. The  perfect  instruments  were  all  most  beautiful  speci- 
mens of  mechanical  art,  showing  an  elaboration  in  design  and 
an  exactitude  of  adjustment,  possible  only  to  a  man  who  had  a 
genius  for  mechanics,  as  well  as  for  investigation. 

To  establish  a  basis  for  the  measurement  of  solar  intensities 
it  was  necessary  to  ascertain  the  laws  of  radiation,  by  determin- 
ing what  amount  of  heat  was  transmitted  to  a  given  distance 
from  bodies  artificially  heated.  It  was  further  necessary  to  in- 
quire to  what  extent  the  heat  generated  by  the  sun  was  lessened 
in  its  journey  over  the  inten'ening  space  of  ninety-tvv'o  millions 
of  miles,  and  how  much  of  it  was  absorbed  in  its  passage  through 
our  atmosphere.  The  various  instrumentalities  for  measuring 
heat  were  also  to  be  tested,  and  more  exact  methods  of  com- 
putation devised,  if  possible.  The  patient  ingenuity  devoted 
to  the  construction  of  the  apparatus  used  by  Ericsson  has  no 
record  in  the  Patent  OflBce,  but  it  was  suflBcient  to  establish  any 
man's  reputation  as  an  inventor.  On  one  occasion,  two  heavily 
laden  wagons  carried  to  a  dumping-ground  in  New  Jersey, 
what  appeared  to  be  the  debris  of  a  canning  factory.  These 
were  the  shattered  remains  of  the  numerous  devices  out  of 
which  had  grown  his  elaborate  equipment  of  solar  appara- 
tus, some  of  the  instruments  having  passed  through  several 
dozen  transformations  before  assuming  final  shape. 

Sir  Isaac  Newton,  in  estimating  the  temperature  to  which 
the  comet  of  1680  was  subjected  when  nearest  the  sun,  assumed, 
as  the  result  of  his  practical  observ'ations,  that  the  maximum 
temperature  produced  by  solar  radiation,  in  the  latitude  of 
London,  was  one-third  that  of  boiling  water,  or  60°  F.  The 
density  of  the  sun's  rays,  at  the  distance  of  the  comet,  was 
28,000  times  greater  than  on  earth,  and  the  sun's  heat  was  in- 
creased there  in  like  proportion,  or  to  1,680,000°  F. — exactly 
2,000  times  that  of  red-hot  iron  at  a  temperature  of  840°. 

A  calculation  by  Ericsson  showed  that  Newton's  estimate 
indicated  a  solar  intensity  of  2,986,000°  F.  His  own  estimates 
varied  somewhat,  the  highest  being  4,036,000°  F.,  or  1,373 
times  that  of  boiling  iron.  Estimates  by  other  physicists  lie 
between  the  extremes  of  2,500°  and  18,000,000°  F.;  Vicaire 
giving  the  lowest,  and  Father  Secchi  the  highest. 


SCIENTIFIC  INVESTIGATIONS  AND  INVENTIONS.         283 

Ericsson  further  concluded  that  the  capacity  of  the  sun  for 
emitting  heat  was  relatively  less  than  that  of  molten  cast-iron; 
"a  fact  which  tends  to  prove  that  the  sun's  radiant  heat  em- 
anates from  burning  gases."  So  Anaxagoras,  the  instructor  of 
Socrates,  was  not  so  far  wrong  when  he  affirmed,  twenty-five 
hundred  years  ago,  that  the  sun  was  "  a  cloud  enfired." 

The  solar  gases  were,  as  Ericsson's  investigations  led  him  to 
believe,  so  attenuated  that  an  atmosphere  100,000  miles  high, 
extended  over  a  given  area  of  the  sun's  surface,  would  not  con- 
tain more  matter  than  the  terrestrial  atmosphere  42  miles  high 
over  an  equal  area,  the  proportion  being  as  1  to  152,000.  By 
an  elaborate  calculation  he  showed  "  that  the  depth  of  the 
measurable  portion  of  the  solar  envelope  cannot  be  less  than 
255,000  miles,  assuming  the  radius  of  the  sun's  body  to  be 
426,000  miles." 

Melloni,  an  Italian  physicist  who  died  in  1853,  asserted 
that  the  amount  of  heat  received  from  a  body  transmitting  it 
was  in  the  ratio  of  the  distance,  and  this  doctrine  was  further 
elaborated  by  Professor  Tyndall  in  his  "  Heat  as  a  Mode  of 
Motion."  The  numerous  experiments  described  by  Ericsson 
led  to  the  conclusion  that  this  doctrine  was  unsound,  and  that  it 
is  relative  areas,  and  not  relative  distances,  that  determine  the 
degree  to  which  radiating  bodies  transmit  heat.  The  interven- 
ing space,  whether  it  be  one  mile  or  1,000  miles,  is  to  be  ex- 
cluded from  the  calculation.  "The  law  which  governs  the 
transmission  of  radiant  heat  through  space  is  as  absolute  as  the 
law  of  gravitation,  whatever  be  the  distance."  The  ether  offers 
no  resistance  to  the  passage  of  the  sun's  rays,  and  solar  heat  is 
diminished  by  distance  only  because  the  rays  producing  it  are 
dispersed  over  a  greater  area,  as  they  proceed  further  and  fur- 
ther from  their  source. 

Hence  this  conclusion:  "the  intensities  are  inversely  as  the 
areas  over  which  the  rays  are  dispersed."  Yet,  it  is  true  that 
the  temperature  actually  produced  by  the  radiant  heat  of  the 
sun's  rays  "  is  inversely  as  the  square  of  the  distance  from  his 
centre,  the  same  law  applying  to  all  spheres  having  a  uniform 
temperature  at  the  surface." 

Another  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton's  theories  is  that  the  loss  of 
heat  by  a  body  is  in  proportion  to  the  excess  of  its  temperature 


284  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

over  that  of  the  medium  surrounding  it.  The  experiments  of 
the  Frenchmen,  Dulong  and  Petit,  were  supposed  to  contradict 
this  conchision.  To  test  the  question  Ericsson  constructed  sev- 
eral instruments  designed  to  determine  the  rate  at  which  heat 
is  transferred  from  or  to  a  body  inclosed  in  a  vacuum,  and 
the  power  or  dynamic  energy  developed  by  radiant  heat,  A 
series  of  tabulated  results  are  given  to  show  that  ]S'ewton  was 
right,  and  that  Dulong  and  Petit  were  wrong.  Hence  the 
theory  of  an  increase  of  radiant  energies  at  high  temperatures 
was  set  aside.  Twenty  seconds  were  required  to  produce  a 
change  of  temperature  supposed  to  occupy,  according  to  the 
Dulong  formula,  only  the  small  portion  of  a  single  second. 

The  radiant  energy,  according  to  Dulong  and  Petit,  was 
1,321  times  higher  than  that  established  by  Ericsson's  elabo- 
rate practical  investigations. 

An  instrument  called  the  actinometer,  and  various  unnamed 
instruments,  were  constructed  to  ascertain,  by  a  new  and  exact 
method,  the  amount  of  radiant  heat  absorbed  by  the  atmos- 
phere, and  thus  to  determine  the  intensity  of  solar  radiation  at 
the  surface  of  the  earth.  John  Frederick  Daniell,  who  founded 
the  English  Quarterly  Journal  of  Science,  and  so  successfully 
combined  the  study  of  physics  with  the  business  of  sugar  re- 
fining that  he  received  the  unique  reward  of  all  three  medals 
in  the  gift  of  the  Royal  Society,  had,  in  the  latitude  of  London, 
conducted  investigations  relative  to  the  sun's  heat.  Daniell's 
tables,  so  frequently  referred  to  in  works  of  meteorology,  Erics- 
son found  full  of  errors,  when  tested  by  his  actinometer,  and 
he  furnishes  an  entirely  different  set  of  data.  lie  discovered,  in 
using  this  instrument,  that  there  is  an  appreciable  difference  in 
the  sun's  energy  for  corresponding  distances  above  the  horizon 
early  in  the  morning  and  late  in  the  afternoon.  This  he  ac- 
counted for  by  a  demonstration  showing  that  "  the  orbital  mo- 
tion of  the  earth  occasions  a  very  considerable  advance  toward, 
and  retreat  from,  the  solar  wave  early  a.m.  and  late  p.m." 

Not  only  were  the  varying  zenith  distances  considered  in 
these  observations,  but  also  the  varying  distances  from  the  sun 
at  different  seasons.  It  resulted  from  this  that  solar  radiation 
was  less  in  summer  than  in  winter,  owing  to  the  increased  dis- 
tance of  the  earth  from  the  sun.     Sir  John  Ilerschel  assumed 


SCIENTIFIC   INVESTIGATIONS   AND   INVENTIONS.         285 

that  the  temperature  on  the  earth,  if  the  sun  did  not  exist,  would 
be  239°  below  zero  F.,  and  that  the  maximum  solar  tempera- 
ture is  100°  F.  above  zero.  He  estimated  that  the  variation, 
due  to  the  cliange  of  distance  between  the  sun  and  the  earth, 
was  one-fifteenth  of  this  difference  of  339°,  or  23°  F.  John 
Ericsson's  investigations  led  to  the  conclusion  that  the  dif- 
ference was  less  than  5°  F. 

But  since  the  time  of  Herschel  it  has  been  ascertained  that 
we  must  deduct  4G0°  from  the  zero  of  Fahrenheit  to  reach 
the  point  where  heat  entirely  disappears,  and  "  Night  and  Chaos, 
ancestors  of  Nature,  hold  eternal  anarchy."  This  would  in- 
crease to  37°  F.  Herschel's  estimate  of  the  variation  of  one-fif- 
teenth, due  to  the  change  in  the  distance  between  the  earth  and 
the  sun  (100  +  460-^15=37^-). 

Tlie  temperature  produced  by  solar  radiation,  then,  instead 
of  being  560°  F.,  as  estimated  by  Herschel,  according  to  Erics- 
son scarcely  reaches  88°  F.  at  a  distance  of  91,430,000  miles 
from  the  solar  centre.  Recording  this  conclusion,  Ericsson 
says : 

Concerning  the  radiant  heat  which  reaches  the  distant  planets  of  the 
solar  system,  the  stated  discrepancy  is  of  vital  importance.  Were  it 
true  that  the  intensity  of  the  sun's  radiant  heat  is  560°  F.  at  the  distance 
mentioned,  the  rays  on  reaching  Jupiter's  atmosphere  would  be  capable 
of  developing  a  temperature  of  |^°j  =20.7°  F.  We  can  readily  imagine 
that  the  atmosphere  of  the  giant  planet  might,  by  some  system  of  ac- 
cumulation, raise  this  temperature  to  such  a  degree  that  organisms 
like  those  of  the  earth  might  be  sustained.  But  can  the  insignificant 
temperature  of  ^^  =  3.2°  F.,  transmitted  to  Jupiter's  atmosphere,  be  suf- 
ficiently elevated  by  the  process  of  accumulation  to  sustain  animate  and 
vegetable  organizations  resembling  those  of  our  planet  ?  The  stated 
low  temperature  need  excite  no  surprise  if  we  reflect  on  the  fact  that 
the  sun,  as  seen  from  the  boundary  of  the  atmosphere  of  Jupiter,  is  no 
larger  than  an  orange  viewed  at  a  distance  of  one  hundred  feet.  As  seen 
from  Saturn,  the  size  of  the  sun  is  that  of  a  musket-ball  at  a  distance 
of  fifty  feet  from  the  observer's  eye ;  while  the  transmitted  solar  heat 
scarcely  develops  a  temperature  of  1°  F.  where  it  enters  Saturn's  at- 
mosphere. Speculations  regarding  the  habitability  of  the  distant  planets 
are  futile,  in  view  of  the  insuflBcient  radiant  intensity  of  solar  emission 
established  by  the  actinometric  obsei-vations  recorded  in  this  work,  and 
by  the  adopted  tests  proving  their  reliability  (p.  180). 


286  UFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

Following  his  determination  of  the  amount  of  solar  energy 
lost  by  the  passage  of  the  sun's  rays  through  our  atmosphere, 
Ericsson  next  sought  to  measure  the  energy  actually  developed 
near  the  earth's  surface.  For  this  purpose  he  constructed  two 
solar  calorimeters,  one  in  1S70  and  an  improvement  upon  it  in 
1874.  With  the  two  factors  of  surface  heat  and  atmospheric 
absorption  accurately  determined,  the  amount  of  solar  radiation 
at  the  boundary  of  the  terrestrial  atmosphere  was  measured. 

The  energy  developed  by  radiation  from  the  sun,  over  one 
square  foot  of  the  earth's  surface  for  one  minute,  was  found 
to  be  5.64  thermal  units,  and  the  atmosphere  absorbed  0.207. 
This  gave  a  total  of  7.11  thermal  units  on  one  foot  of  surface 
as  the  measurement  of  solar  radiation  at  the  boundary  of  the 
atmosphere.  The  investigator  was  so  satisfied  with  his  methods 
and  their  results  that  he  confidently  said: 

It  is  not  probable  that  future  laborers  will  change  the  resuh  of  our  in- 
vestigation. The  continuous  shrinking  of  the  sun  will  produce  a  per- 
ceptible diminution  of  the  radiant  energy  transmitted  to  the  earth  in  the 
course  of  a  few  hundred  centuries,  but  the  emissive  energy  for  a  given 
area  of  the  sun  will  remain  constant  for  millions  of  years,  since  the  in- 
tensity developed  by  the  falling  mass  will  increase  inversely  as  the 
square  of  its  distance  from  the  solar  centre,  thus  balancing  the  diminu- 
tion of  energy  consequent  on  the  reduced  fall  of  the  mass  (p.  104). 

The  Jesuit  Father  Secchi,  after  his  recall  to  Rome  from 
Georgetown  College,  D.  C,  to  take  charge  of  the  Observatory  of 
the  Roman  College,  undertook  a  series  of  investigations  into 
solar  physics.  The  publication  of  these  challenged  Ericsson's 
attention,  and  he  entered  upon  a  lively  controversy  with  Secchi 
in  the  scientific  periodicals.  One  point  in  the  contention  was 
as  to  the  amount  subtracted  from  the  heat  radiated  by  the  sun, 
during  its  passage  through  the  solar  atmosphere.  To  determine 
this,  Ericsson  constructed  a  machine  of  unusual  dimension — 
fifty-eight  feet  focal  length,  to  measure  the  amount  of  heat 
radiated  from  different  parts  of  the  solar  disk.  His  conclusion 
was  that  only  0.144  of  the  heat  starting  from  the  photosphere 
was  subtracted  by  the  solar  atmosphere.  Father  Secchi  esti- 
mated it  at  more  than  sixteen  times  this,  or  .88,  leaving  only 
fj^  of  the  sun's  heat  to  transverse  space. 


SCIENTIFIC  INVESTIGATIONS  AND  INVENTIONS.         287 

The  French  mathematician  and  astronomer  Aiizout,  and  his 
Dutch  contemporary  Huygens,  had,  during  the  latter  part  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  sought  to  measure  the  intensity  of 
solar  light;  and  the  investigations  of  the  Frenchman  Bouguer 
(1698-1758),  a  few  years  later,  were  made  use  of  by  Laplace  in 
demonstrating  his  theory  that  the  light  of  the  sun  is  greater 
at  the  boundary  than  at  its  centre,  because  it  is  viewed  at  a 
lesser  angle.  Again,  on  this  point,  Ericsson  took  issue  with  the 
highest  authority  and  denied  the  resulting  conclusion  of  Laplace, 
that  the  removal  of  the  sun's  atmosphere  would  increase  its 
brilliancy  twelve-fold.  Absorption  of  heat  meaning  the  crea- 
tion of  power,  Ericsson  asks  the  advocates  of  the  theory  of  the 
disappearance  of  one-half  of  the  sun's  heat  in  the  solar  atmos- 
phere to  account  for  the  enormous  energies  thus  taken  up.  He 
adds,  too,  that  the  heat  is  diminished,  instead  of  increased,  by 
being  received  under  the  lesser  angle.  He  accepts,  however, 
the  conclusion  of  Laplace,  that  the  sun  emits  equal  energy  in 
all  directions,  and  that  the  decrease  of  energy  is  proportioned 
to  the  depth  penetrated  by  the  rays. 

An  elaborate  and  most  interesting  demonstration  is  given  to 
show  that  a  circulatory  movement  is  maintained  in  the  body  of 
the  sun,  by  the  gravitation  downward  of  the  particles  cooled 
upon  the  surface,  and  the  upward  rush  of  the  more  highly 
heated  and  thus  lighter  particles  underneath.  The  uniformity 
of  this  interchange  is  subject  to  various  influences  interfering 
with  solar  circulation.     Of  this  Ericsson  says: 

The  consequence  of  this  precarious  feature  of  the  scheme  is  self-evi- 
dent, if  we  consider  that  the  present  solar  emission  is  dependent  upon 
a  given  rate  of  contraction  of  the  solar  mass.  Should  that  contraction 
be  checked  by  interrupted  circulation,  the  development  of  heat  will 
also  be  checked,  and,  consequently,  the  intensity  of  solar  radiation  be- 
comes inadequate  to  sustain  animal  and  vegetable  life,  as  now  organized, 
on  our  planet.  History  informs  us  that  the  luminary  has  at  certain 
epochs  partially  failed  to  perform  its  functions.  Herschel  mentions,  in 
his  "  Outlines  of  Astronomy,"  that  "in  the  annals  of  the  year  a.d.  536  the 
sun  is  said  to  have  suffered  a  great  diminution  of  light,  which  continued 
fourteen  months.  From  October,  a.d.  626,  to  the  following  June,  a  de- 
falcation of  light  to  the  extent  of  one-half  is  recorded;  and  in  a.d. 
1547,  during  three  days,  the  sun  is  said  to  have  been  so  darkened  that 
stars  were  seen  in  the  daytime."    Again,  the  glacial  periods,  the  ascer- 


288 


LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 


tained  abrupt  termination  and  recurrence  of  which  puzzle  the  geologist, 
point  to  periodical  derangement  of  the  solar  mechanism  in  past  ages  (p. 
152). 


To  show  the  possibility  of  accurately  measuring  the  ener- 
gies of  the  solar  photosphere  with  his  pyrometer,  Ericsson  cited 


Captain  Ericsson's  Solar  Pyrometer,  Erected  at 


the  experience  of  Cavendish  and  Baily,  who  had,  by  a  series  of 
2,153  most  delicate  tests,  determined  the  relation  between  the 
attractive  force,  amounting  to  only  ^-^Vir  ^^  ^  g^ahi,  exerted 
by  a  leaden  ball  one  foot  in  diameter,  and  the  weight  of  the 
sun,  832,584  miles  in  diameter,  the  relative  attractions  of  the 
two  spheres  being  as  1  to  2,367  x  10.".  As  the  radiant  area 
of  his  pyrometer  was  to  that  of  the  sun  as  1  to  2,871  x  10.'*, 


SCIENTIFIC  INVESTIGATIONS  AND   INVENTIONS.  289 

the  two  extremes  of  his  equation  were  824,500,000  times 
nearer  together  than  those  of  the  Cavendish  experiment. 
Hence,  as  he  argued,  his  problem  was  much  the  easier  of  solu- 
tion. 

If  investigators  differ  so  widely  as  to  the  actual  temperature 
of  the  sun,  they  are  nearer  together  in  their  estimate  of  solar 
energy.  This  is  held  to  represent  a  dynamic  force  of  about 
300,000  thermal  units  per  minute.  Ericsson  did  not  believe  it 
possible  to  develop  such  energy  by  radiation  from  a  body  having 
a  temperature  less  than  that  of  boiling  iron.  He  experimented 
to  ascertain  the  amount  of  heat  transmitted  by  burning  gases; 
by  flat  surfaces  of  metal  highly  heated,  and  inclined  at  different 
angles,  and  by  globes  of  metal.  Taking  his  measurements 
from  different  points  on  their  surface,  and  at  different  angles, 
he  satisfied  himself  that  radiation  does  not  proceed  with  equal 
energy  in  all  directions.  Increase  in  the  acuteness  of  the  angles 
correspondingly  lessens  the  energy  of  the  heat-rays,  the  varia- 
tion between  the  extremes  being  as  one  to  seven.  Thus  he  an- 
swered the  argument  of  atmospheric  absorption,  used  by  La- 
place and  others  to  account  for  the  differences  of  temperature 
observed  in  different  portions  of  the  solar  surface. 

Ericsson  intended  originally  to  employ  the  thermo-electric 
method,  for  ascertaining  the  difference  of  radiant  energy  trans- 
mitted by  the  sun's  rays  from  different  portions  of  the  solar 
disk.  Though  he  did  not  carry  out  this  plan,  he  made  some 
experimental  tests  of  the  correctness  of  Melloni's  assertions 
concerning  the  calorific  energies  imparted  to  a  thermopile, 
and  constructed  a  special  apparatus  for  calibrating  the  gal- 
vanometer; that  is,  to  ascertain  by  special  measurements,  or 
by  comparison  with  a  standard  instrument,  to  what  strengths 
of  current  particular  amounts  of  deflection  correspond.  Experi- 
ments with  this  apparatus  showed  that  when  the  needle  of  the 
galvanometer  "  has  moved  through  an  arc  of  13  degrees,  the  en- 
ergy is  greater  than  the  deflection  in  the  ratio  of  15.28  to  13.00, 
instead  of  being  exactly  balanced  as  stated  by  Melloni." 

As  P^re  Secchi  in  his  investigations  used  an  instnmient  of 
his  own  contriving,  called  a  thermoheliometer  or  sun-heat  meter, 
Ericsson  procured  one  of  these  from  Cellini,  of  London,  sub- 
jected it  to  careful  tests,  and  condemned  it  as  utterly  unreliable. 
Vol.  11-19 


290  LIFE  OF  JOHN"  ERICSSOX. 

He  entered  upon  an  elaborate  demonstration  to  show,  too,  that 
no  raeasnreraents  depending  upon  the  bulb  indications  of  a 
mercurial  thermometer  were  sufficiently  accurate  for  his  pur- 
pose. The  solar  ravs  influencing  the  mercury  in  such  a  bulb 
are  distributed  over  an  area  twice  as  great  as  their  section,  thus 
diminishing  their  mean  intensity  one-half.  There  is  also  seri- 
ous loss  of  heat  from  the  cold  currents  of  air  circulating  around 
the  half  of  the  bulb  not  under  the  sun's  rays. 

This  discovery  led  him  to  devise  his  "  barometric  actinome- 
ter,"  or  instrument  for  measuring  the  energy  of  the  sun's  heat- 
rays  through  changes  in  the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere,  which 
is,  indeed,  what  the  thermometer  does  in  a  less  accurate  way. 
The  bulb  in  this  instrument  had  the  general  shape  of  a  kettle- 
drum, with  a  slightly  convex  crystal  taking  the  place  of  the 
parchment.  This  hemispherical  cup  of  metal  was  charged  with 
dry  atmospheric  air,  and  placed  at  the  bottom  of  a  cylinder  ex- 
hausted of  air  and  surrounded  by  a  double  casing,  so  as  to 
secure  a  uniform  temperature  within,  by  the  circulation  of 
water  around  the  exterior.  A  barometric  tube  was  so  con- 
nected with  the  dry  air  in  the  bulb  as  to  furnish  an  exact  indi- 
cation of  the  degree  of  expansion  resulting  from  the  action  of 
the  sun's  rays  transmitted  through  the  glass  to  this  imprisoned 
air.  The  amount  of  heat  absorbed  by  the  glass  was  tested,  and 
other  careful  corrections  of  the  measurements  were  made. 

The  area  of  the  surface  of  the  bulb  in  this  instrument  cor- 
responded to  that  of  the  pencil  of  rays  acting  upon  it,  and  it 
had  only  one-half  of  the  surface  from  which  to  radiate  away 
the  heat  it  received.  Mechanism  was  attached  to  enable  the 
operator  to  direct  the  tube  accurately  toward  the  sun,  and  to 
ascertain  its  distance  fiom  the  zenith  bvexaminino:  a  graduated 
quadrant.  "Meteorologists,"  said  Ericsson,  "will  do  well  to 
adopt  such  an  instrument  in  all  important  observations,  since 
its  simultaneous  indication  of  solar  intensity  and  zenith  dis- 
tance enables  them  to  determine  the  relative  amount  of  vapor 
present  in  the  atmosphere,  with  a  degree  of  precision  probably 
unobtainable  by  any  other  means.'' 

Tests  were  also  made  to  determine  the  conductivity  of  mer- 
cury, the  conclusion  arrived  at  being  tliat  it  has  so  little  capacity 
for  transmitting  heat  from  particle  to  particle,  that  "  thermom- 


SCIENTIFIC   INVESTIGATIONS   AND   INVENTIONS.         291 

eters  and  thermoheliometers  with  spherical  bulbs  are  worthless 
as  means  of  measuring  maximum  intensity  of  solar  radia- 
tion." Copper  was  found  to  have  29.06  times  the  conductivity 
of  mercury.  Incidentally,  the  fact  was  established  that  a  plate 
of  wrought  copper  two  inches  thick  would  conduct  from  one 
side  to  the  other  one  hundred  times  as  much  mechanical  energy 
as  it  could  radiate  from  its  surface  during  the  same  time. 

The  "  diathermacy  "  of  flames,  or  the  extent  to  which  they 
permit  the  passage  of  heat,  as  transparent  objects  permit  the 
passage  of  light,  was  another  subject  engaging  Ericsson's  atten- 
tion. To  test  this  a  special  apparatus  was  constructed.  It 
consisted  of  a  number  of  gas-jets  so  arranged  in  a  row  that 
their  heat  passed  to  a  thermometer  through  the  flames  of 
other  jets.  Thus  it  was  found  that  when  one  flame  transmit- 
ted 1.76  degree  of  heat  a  given  distance,  ten  flames,  owing  to 
the  interference  of  those  nearest  the  thermometer  with  the  free 
passage  of  heat  from  the  others,  transmitted  only  7.90  degrees 
instead  of  17.6  degrees  (1.76  x  10),  as  they  should  have  done 
theoretically. 

As  to  the  sufficiency  of  Ericsson's  experiments,  it  is  said  that 
they  do  not  take  account  of  what  Professor  Langley,  one  of  the 
highest  authorities  on  solar  physics,  speaks  of  as  "  the  hitherto 
too  little  regarded  quality  of  selective  absorption  in  our  atmos- 
phere," The  absorbent  power  of  the  atmosphere  varies  with 
different  heat-rays,  and  if  the  eye  were  sensitive  to  these  rays 
they  would  represent  to  our  sight  something  analogous  to  the 
colors  of  the  prism.  The  cosmic  dust,  circulating  in  space,  also 
plays  an  important  part,  according  to  this  authority,  in  the  in- 
terception of  heat-rays.  And  Professor  Tyndall  says  :  "  As 
the  air  of  a  room  accommodates  itself  to  the  requirements  of 
an  orchestra,  transmitting  each  vibration  of  every  pipe  and 
string,  so  does  the  interstellar  ether  accommodate  itself  to  the 
requirements  of  light  and  heat.  Its  waves  mingle  in  space 
without  disorder,  each  being  endowed  with  an  individuality  as 
indestructible  as  if  it  alone  had  disturbed  the  universal  re- 
pose." * 

Ericsson  had  great  respect  for  the  opinions  of  Professor 
Langley,  if  he  did  not  accept  tliem.     The  Professor  of  Natural 

*  John  Tyndall :   Fragments  of  Science,  p.  178. 


292  LIFE   OF  JOIIX  ERICSSON. 

Philosophy  in  the  Royal  Institute  was  not  an  authority  to 
whose  dicta  he  bowed.  "Tyndall,"  he  said  in  a  private  let- 
ter, "is  a  contemptible  reasoner,  although  a  splendid  lecturer 
on  experimental  physics.  All  his  fine  writing,  if  severely 
scrutinized,  will  be  found  to  betray  a  shallow  mind.  His 
promise  and  potency  of  inert  matter  is  not  only  absurd,  but 
idiotic." 

Whatever  the  final  determination  as  to  the  correctness  of 
some  of  Ericsson's  conclusions,  it  cannot  be  questioned  that  he 
has  made  very  important  contributions  to  science.  Among  them, 
is  his  original  demonstration  of  the  fact  that  "an  air  thermome- 
ter, placed  in  a  concave  spherical  radiator  composed  of  ice,  and 
surrounded  by  very  cold  substances,  say  100  degrees  below  zero, 
will  furnish  an  indication  by  which  the  temperature  of  distant 
incandescent  bodies  may  be  ascertained  with  as  much  certainty 
as  by  employing  a  radiator  heated  to  such  a  degree  as  to  emit 
luminous  rays."  From  this  it  would  appear  to  follow  that 
solar  radiation  adds  a  like  increment  of  heat  to  all  bodies, 
whatever  their  previous  temperature.  A  lump  of  ice  below  32 
degrees  in  temperature,  and  a  mass  of  molten  metal  having  a 
temperature  of  3,000°  F.,  each  receive  the  same  increase  of  heat 
when  exposed  to  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun. 

One  experiment  would  seem  conclusively  to  dispose  of  the 
theory  of  extremely  low  temperature  for  the  solar  photosphere. 
He  constructed  a  small  sun  of  his  own,  having  a  temperature 
in  excess  of  that  ascribed  to  our  central  luminary  by  Pouillet 
and  others.  This  was  a  mass  of  7,000  pounds  of  melted 
cast-iron  run  into  a  vessel  lined  with  fire-clay  from  a  cupola 
furnace,  where  it  had  been  superheated  to  over  3,000°  F. 
On  the  surface  of  this  glowing  body  of  metal  was  floated 
a  calorimeter  to  measure  the  radiant  energy.  The  temperature 
w'as  sufficiently  high  to  produce  an  intense  white  light,  lumi- 
nous rays  of  great  brilliancy  were  emitted  during  the  experi- 
ments, and  the  heated  body  was  so  large  that  the  intensity  of 
radiation  was  sustained  without  appreciable  diminution.  As 
increase  of  dimensions  does  not  add  to  the  radiant  intensity 
of  a  given  area,  "it  may  reasonably  be  asked,"  says  Ericsson, 
"why  an  area  of  one  square  foot  of  our  experimental  lumi- 
nous radiator  should  not  emit  as  much  heat  in  a  given   time 


SCIENTIFIC  INVESTIGATIONS  AND  INVENTIONS.         293 

as  an  equal  area  of  the  solar  surface,  if  the  temperature  of  the 
latter  be  that  assumed  by  Pouillet?" 

Ericsson  found  in  the  operation  of  his  sun-motor  further 
proof  of  the  correctness  of  Newton's  theory,  that  the  energy  of 
solar  radiation  increases  as  the  density  of  the  rays.  There 
could  be  no  increase  in  the  heat  of  the  rays  received  by  his  re- 
flector, yet,  as  the  size  of  the  reflector  increased  and  a  larger 
mass  of  rays  was  compressed  within  the  area  of  the  heater,  its 
temperature  increased  correspondingly. 

A  calculation  was  made  to  prove  that  the  temperature 
imparted  to  the  heater  indicated  a  solar  intensity  of  not  less 
than  1,303,640°  F.,  and  this  was  not  the  maximum.  Those 
who  refused  to  accept  his  conclusions  admitted  that  he  reasoned 
logically,  and  that  his  experiments  were  ingenious  and  novel. 
The  dispute  was  as  to  the  premises.  Ericsson  denied  that  the 
activity  of  radiation  increased  out  of  proportion  to  the  increase 
of  temperature;  Professor  Langley  and  others  insisted  that  this 
increased  activity  was  so  great  that  the  city  and  county  of  New 
York  might  be  warmed  by  the  heat  radiated  from  a  single  stove 
if  its  temperature  was  sufficiently  high. 

In  September,  1884,  Ericsson  sent  to  Nature  an  account  of 
experiments  he  had  just  completed  with  a  new  apparatus  for 
establishing  the  relations  between  diffusion  and  the  energy  of 
solar  radiation.  This  was  the  "polygonal  reflector"  composed 
of  two  circles.  The  diameter  in  the  outer  circle  is  eight  feet, 
and  of  the  inner  six  feet,  and  the  circles  are  one  foot  apart. 
Between  them  are  placed  side  by  side  ninety-six  strips  of  thin 
glass  silvered  on  the  outside,  furnishing  a  reflecting  surface  of 
3,130  square  inches  section.  This  instrument  is  turned  toward 
the  sun  and  its  rays  concentrated  on  a  heater  of  thin  plate-iron 
0.017  inch  thick,  fixed  in  the  centre.  Through  the  tube  in  the 
head  of  this  heater  a  thermometer  is  inserted  to  measure  the 
temperature.  This  instrument  was  more  exact  in  its  indica- 
tions than  the  sun-motor,  and  the  conclusion  from  it  was  that 
the  temperature  of  the  solar  surface  could  not  be  less  than 
3,060,727°  F.     Ericsson  says: 

This  underrated  computation  must  be  accepted,  unless  it  can  be 
shown  that  the  temperature  produced   by  radiant  heat   is  not  inversely 


294  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

aa  the  diflfusion  of  the  rays.  Physicists  who  question  the  existence  of 
such  high  solar  temiierature  should  bear  in  mind  that  in  consequence 
of  the  great  attraction  of  the  solar  mass,  hydrogen  on  the  sun's  surface 
raised  to  a  temperature  of  4,000°  Centigrade,  will  be  nearly  ^wice  as 
heavy  as  hydrogen  on  the  surface  of  the  earth  at  ordinary  atmospheric 
temperatures ;  and  that,  owing  to  the  immense  depth  of  the  solar  at- 
mosjihere,  its  density  would  be  so  enormous  at  the  stated  low  tempera- 
ture that  the  observed  rapid  movements  within  the  solar  envelope  could 
not  possibly  take  place.  It  scarcely  needs  demonstration  to  prove  that 
extreme  tenuity  is  incompatible  with  low  temperature,  and  the  pressure 
produced  by  an  atmospheric  column  probably  exceeding  50,000  miles  in 
height,  subjected  to  the  sun's  powerful  attraction,  diminished  only  one- 
fourth  at  the  stated  elevation.  These  facts  warrant  the  conclusion  that 
the  high  temperature  established  by  our  investigation  is  requisite  to 
prevent  undue  density  of  the  solar  atmosjihere. 

It  is  not  intended  at  present  to  discuss  the  necessity  of  tenuity  with 
reference  to  the  functions  of  the  sun  as  a  radiator ;  yet  it  will  be  proper 
to  observe  that,  on  merely  dynamical  grounds,  the  enormous  density  of 
the  solar  euveloi:)0  which  would  result  from  low  temperature,  presents 
an  unanswerable  objection  to  the  assumption  of  Pouillet,  Yicaire, 
Sainte-Claire  Deville,  and  other  eminent  savants,  that  the  temperature 
of  the  solar  surface  does  not  reach  3,000  degrees  C. 

To  separate  Ericsson's  conclusions  concerning  solar  temper- 
ature and  solar  radiation,  from  the  demonstrations  leading  up  to 
them,  is  scarcely  just.  Fortunately,  his  reputation  as  a  scien- 
tific observer  does  not  depend  upon  this  brief  biographical  state- 
ment. In  his  Centennial  volume  he  has  given  a  very  full  ac- 
count of  his  investigations,  and  the  processes  of  reasoning  es- 
tablishing his  deductions  are  there  shown.  As  this  volume  is 
accessible  to  very  few,  it  seems  due  to  his  reputation  that  some 
suggestion  of  the  nature  and  extent  of  his  scientific  work  should 
be  given  here.  A  remarkable  example  of  his  power  of  reason- 
ing, and  his  capacity  for  clear  statement,  is  found  in  an  article 
published  by  JVatiire,  July  15,  1886,  when  Ericsson  was  just 
completing  his  eighty-third  year.  His  study  of  heat  had  led 
him  to  some  novel  conclusions  concerning  what  he  called  "  that 
shining  lump  of  ice,  the  moon."  In  his  article  in  Nature^  this 
vigorous  octogenarian  thus  wrote  : 

A  monograph  by  the  writer,  relating  to  the  temperature  of  the  lunar 
surface,  read  before  the  American  Academy  of  Science,  September,  1869, 
contained  the  following  :  "^Vie  we  not  forced  to  dissent  from  Sir  John 


SCIENTIFIC    INVESTIGATIONS   AND   INVENTIONS.         295 

HeTscliel's  opinion  that  the  heat  of  the  moon's  surface,  when  presented 
to  the  sun,  much  exceeds  that  of  boiling  water  ?  Raised  to  such  a  high 
temperature,  our  satellite,  with  its  feeble  attraction,  could  not  possibly 
be  without  an  envelope  of  gases  of  some  kind.  Indeed,  nothing  but  the 
assumption  of  extreme  cold  offers  a  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  ab- 
sence of  any  gaseous  envelope  round  a  planetary  body  which,  on  ac- 
count of  its  near  proximity,  cannot  vary  very  much  from  the  earth  as  re- 
gards its  composition.  The  supposition  that  this  neighboring  body  is 
devoid  of  water,  dried  up  and  sunburnt,  will  assuredly  prove  one  of  the 
greatest  mistakes  ever  committed  by  physicists." 

This  assertion  was  based  on  demonstrations  showing  that  the  circular 
walls  of  the  great  "ring  mountains  "on  the  lunar  surface  are  not,  as 
sujjposed,  composed  of  "  mineral  substances  originally  in  a  state  of  fu- 
sion." The  height  and  diameter  of  these  walls  being  recorded  in  "  Der 
Mond,"*  computations  based  on  the  safe  assumption  that  the  areas  of 
their  transverse  sections  cannot  be  less  than  the  square  of  their  height, 
establishes  the  imi^ortant  fact  that  the  contents  of  the  wall  of,  for  in- 
stance, Tycho,  the  circumference  of  which  is  160  miles,  height  2.94 
miles,  amounts  to  2.94  x260  =  1,382  cubic  miles.  The  supposed  trans- 
fer of  this  enormous  mass,  in  a  molten  state,  a  distance  of  25  miles  from 
the  central  vent  imagined  by  Nasmyth,  and  its  exact  circular  distribu- 
tion at  the  stated  distance,  besides  its  elevation  to  a  vertical  height  of 
nearly  three  miles,  involve,  I  need  not  point  out,  numerous  physical  im- 
possibilities. Other  materials  and  agencies  than  those  supposed  to  have 
produced  the  "  ring  mountains  "  must  consequently  be  sought  in  expla- 
nation of  their  formation.  A  rigid  application  of  jjhysical  and  mechani- 
cal princij^les  to  the  solution  of  the  problem,  proves  conclusively  that 
water,  subjected  successively  to  the  action  of  heat  and  cold,  has  produced 
the  circular  walls  of  Tycho.  The  supiDOsition  that  these  stupendous 
mounds  consist  of  volcanic  materials  must  accordingly  be  rejected,  and 
the  assumjition  admitted  that  they  are  inert  glaciers  which  have  become 
as  jDermanent  as  granite  mountains  by  the  action  of  perpetual  intense 
cold. 

Independently  of  the  foregoing  demonstration,  the  fallacy  of  the  vol- 
canic hypothesis  will  be  comprehended  by  its  advocates  on  learning  that 
the  quantity  of  lava  requisite  to  form  the  circular  walls  of  Tycho  would 
cover  the  entire  surface  of  England  and  Wales  to  a  depth  of  125  feet.f 

Next  follows  a  mathematical  demonstration  to  show  that,  as 
the  temperature  produced  by  the  sim's  radiant  heat  is  only 
81.11°  during  the  summer  solstice,  this  is  the  maximum  of  in- 
crease on  the  lunar  surface  when  presented  to  the  sun  while  the 

*  Der  Mond  ;  oder  allgemeine  vergleichende  Selenographie. 
f  Area  of  England  and  Wales,  58,320  square  miles  ;  contents  of  the  walls  of 
Tycho,  1,382  cubic  miles  ;  hence  sWA  x  5,280  =  125.12  feet. 


296  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

earth  is  farthest  from  the  luminary.  Attention  is  called  to  the 
fact  that  the  moderate  heat  produced  by  solar  radiation  is  capa- 
ble of  increasing  the  temperature  of  bodies  previously  heated 
to  a  high  degree.  An  illustration  and  description  is  also  given 
of  the  pyro-heliometer,  an  instrument  by  which  this  great  fact 
was  established.  Returning  to  the  subject  of  the  lunar  surface 
and  temperature  the  article  continues  thus: 

Regarding  the  temperature  prevailing  during  the  lunar  night,  its  ex- 
act degree  is  not  of  vital  importance  in  establishing  the  glacial  hypothe- 
sis, since  the  periodical  increment  of  temperature  produced  by  solar 
radiation  is  only  a  fraction  of  the  permanent  loss  attending  the  continu- 
ous radiation  against  space  resulting  from  the  absence  of  a  lunar  atmos- 
phere; besides,  all  physicists  admit  that  it  is  extremely  low.  Sir  John 
Herschel  says  of  the  night  tem])erature  of  the  moon,  that  it  is  the  keenest 
severity  of  frost,  far  exceeding  that  of  our  Polar  winters.  Proctor  says: 
A  cold  far  exceeding  the  intensest  ever  produced  in  terrestrial  experi- 
ments must  exist  over  the  whole  of  the  unilluminated  hemisphere.  The 
author  of  "  Outlines  of  Astronomy  "  has  also  shown  that  the  temperature  of 
space,  against  which  the  moon  at  all  times  radiates,  is  — 151°  C.  ( — 239.8" 
F.);  Pouillet's  estimate  being  —142°  C.  (—223.6°  F.).  Adopting  the 
latter  degree,  and  allowing  81.11°  for  the  sun's  radiant  heat,  we  estab- 
lish the  fact  that  the  temperature  of  the  lunar  surface  presented  to  the 
sun  will  be  223.6°  less  81.1°,  or  —142.5°  F.,  when  the  earth  is  in  aphe- 
lion. It  will  be  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  when  the  earth  is  in  the  said 
position,  the  sun's  rays  acting  on  the  moon  subtend  an  angle  of  31'  32'', 
hence  the  loss  of  heat  by  radiation  against  space  will  be  diminished  only 
0.000021  during  sunshine.  Nor  should  Ilerschel's  investigation  be  lost 
sight  of,  showing  that  stellar  heat  bears  the  same  proj)ortion  to  solar 
heat  as  stellar  light  to  solar  light.  Stellar  heat  being  thus  practically 
inappreciable,  the  temperature  produced  by  stellar  radiation  cannot  be 
far  from  absolute  zero — an  assumption  in  harmony  with  the  views  of 
those  who  have  studied  the  subject  of  stellar  radiation,  and  consequently 
regard  Pouillet's  and  Herschel's  estimate  of  the  temperature  of  space  as 
being  much  too  high. 

Having  disposed  of  the  question  of  temperature,  let  us  return  to 
the  practical  consideration  of  the  glacial  hypothesis.  The  formation  of 
annular  glaciers  by  the  joint  agency  of  water  and  the  internal  heat  of  a 
planetary  body  devoid  of  an  atmosphere  and  subjected  to  extreme  cold, 
is  readily  explained  on  physical  j)rincij)les.  Suppose  a  sheet  of  water, 
or  pond,  on  the  moon's  surface,  covering  the  same  area  as  the  plateau  of 
Tycho,  viz.,  50  miles  diameter  and  1,960  square  miles.  Suppose,  also, 
that  the  internal  heat  of  the  moon  is  capable  of  maintaining  a  moderate 
steam  pressure,  .say  2  pounds,  to  the  square  inch,  at  the  surface  of  the 
water  in  the  pond.     The  attraction  of  the  lunar  mass  being  only  one-sixth 


SCIENTIFIC  INVESTIGATIONS  AND  INVENTIONS.  297 

of  terrestrial  attraction,  while  the  moon's  surface  is  freed  from  any  atmos- 
pheric pressure,  it  will  be  evident  that  under  the  foregoing  conditions 
a  very  powerful  ebullition  and  rapid  evaporation  will  take  place,  and 
that  a  dense  column  of  vapor  will  arise  to  a  considerable  height  above 
the  boiling  water. 

It  will  also  be  evident  that  the  expansive  force  within  this  column  at 
the  surface  of  the  water  will  be  so  powerful  at  the  stated  pressure,  that 
the  vapor  will  be  forced  beyond  the  confines  of  the  pond  in  all  direc- 
tions with  great  velocity.  No  vertical  current,  it  should  be  understood, 
will  be  produced,  since  the  altitude  of  the  column,  after  having  adjusted 
itself  to  the  pressure  corresponding  with  the  surface  temperature  of  the 
water,  remains  stationary,  excepting  the  movement  consequent  on  con- 
densation from  above.  The  particles  of  vapor  forced  beyond  the  con- 
fines of  the  pond,  on  being  exposed  to  the  surrounding  cold  caused  by 
obstructed  radiation  against  space,  will,  of  course,  crystallize  rapidly, 
and  in  the  form  of  snow  fall  in  equal  quantity  round  the  pond,  and 
hereby  build  up  an  annular  glacier.  As  the  radius  of  the  vaporous 
column  exceeds  twenty-five  miles,  it  will  be  perceived  that,  notwith- 
standing the  rapid  outward  movement  before  referred  to,  some  of  the 
snow  formed  by  the  vapors  rising  from  the  boiling  pond  will  fall  into 
the  same,  to  be  melted  and  re-evaporated. 

In  connection  with  the  foregoing  explanation  of  the  formation  of 
annular  glaciers,  their  exact  circular  form  demands  special  considera- 
tion. An  examination  of  Rutherford's  large  photograph  of  the  lunar 
surface  shows  that,  apart  from  the  circular  form  of  the  walls,  the  bot- 
toms of  the  depressions  are  in  numerous  cases  smooth,  rising  slightly 
toward  the  centre  uniformly  all  round.  The  precision  observable  proves 
clearly  the  action  of  formative  power  of  great  magnitude.  Referring  to 
what  has  already  been  explained  regarding  the  vaporous  column  of 
twenty-five  miles  radius,  calculation  shows  that  a  surface  temperature 
exerting  the  moderate  pressure  of  two  pounds  to  the  square  inch  will 
produce  an  amount  of  mechanical  energy  almost  incalculable.  Practical 
engineers  are  aware  that  the  steam  rising  from  a  surface  of  water  ten 
square  feet,  heated  by  a  very  slow  fire,  is  capable  of  producing  an  en- 
ergy of  one  horse-power;  consequently  a  single  square  mile  of  the 
boiling  pond  will  develop  2,780,000  horse-power.  This  prodigious  en- 
ergy will  obviously  be  exerted  horizontally,  as  the  weight  of  the  super- 
incumbent column  of  vapor  balances  its  expansive  force  precisely  as  the 
weight  of  our  atmosphere  balances  its  expansive  force.  But  unlike 
the  earth's  atmosphere,  which  is  restrained  from  horizontal  movement 
by  its  continuance  round  the  globe,  the  vapor  of  the  column  of  fifty 
miles  diameter  is  free  to  move  beyond  the  confines  of  the  pond.  A 
very  powerful  horizontal  motion,  especially  of  the  lower  part  of  the  va- 
porous mass,  will  thus  be  promoted,  acting  in  radial  lines  from  the  cen- 
tre, the  principal  resistance  encountered  being  the  friction  against  the 
water. 


298  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

Considering  that  the  friction  against  the  surface  of  the  ocean,  caased 
by  the  gentle  trade-wind,  is  sufficient  to  produce  the  Gulf  Stream,  we 
need  no  figures  to  show  the  effect  upon  the  water  in  the  boiling  pond 
produced  by  the  vaporous  mass  propelled  by  an  energy  of  two  pounds 
to  the  square  inch,  in  radial  lines  toward  its  confines.  A  circular  tidal 
wave  of  extraordinary  power,  together  with  a  return  under-current 
toward  the  centre,  will  obviously  be  the  result.  But  agreeably  to  the 
laws  supposed  to  govern  vortex  motion,  these  currents  cannot  be  main- 
tained in  a  radial  direction.  A  rotaiy  motion,  rapidly  augmenting,  will 
take  place,  producing  a  vortex  more  powerful  than  any  imagined  by 
Descartes.  The  radial  currents  of  the  vaporous  column  having  as- 
sumed a  spiral  course,  will  rapidly  acquire  a  velocity  exceeding  that 
of  a  cyclone.  The  practical  efi'ect  of  the  powerful  movement  of  the 
vortex,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose,  will  resemble  that  of  a  gigantic 
carving-tool,  whose  thorough  efficiency  in  removing  irregularities  has 
been  proved  by  the  exact  circular  outline  presented  by  thousands  of 
lunar  formations.  The  terraces  within  the  "  ring  mountains  "  indicated 
on  Beer  and  Miidler's  chart,*  it  may  be  shown,  were  produced  by  evapora- 
jion  resulting  from  low  temperature,  and  reduced  energy  after  the  for- 
mation of  the  main  glacier. 

There  is  another  feature  in  the  lunar  landscape  scarcely  less  remark- 
able than  its  circular  walls  and  depressions.  In  the  centre  of  nearly  all 
of  the  latter  one  or  more  conioal  hills  rise,  in  some  cases  several  thou- 
sand feet  high.  Has  the  rotary  motion  of  the  boiling  vortex  any  con- 
nection with  these  central  cones  ?  A  brief  explanation  will  show  that 
the  connection  is  quite  intimate.  The  under-rated  estimate  that  ten 
square  feet  of  surface  under  the  action  of  slow  fire  is  capable  of  develop- 
ing one  horse-power,  proves  the  presence  of  a  dynamic  energy  exceeding 
5,000,000,000  of  horse-power  at  the  base  of  the  vaporous  column  resting 
on  the  boiling  water  of  a  pond  as  large  as  that  of  Tycho.  No  part  of 
this  power  can  be  exerted  vertically,  as  already  explained,  on  the  ground 
that  the  weight  of  the  vapor  restrains  such  movement. 

The  great  velocity  of  the  vortex  resulting  from  the  expenditure  of 
the  stated  amount  of  dynamic  energy  will  of  course  produce  correspond- 
ing centrifugal  force  ;  hence  a  maelstrom  will  be  formed  capable  of 
draining  the  central  part  of  the  pond,  leaving  the  same  dry,  unless  the 
water  be  very  deep,  in  which  case  the  appearance  of  a  dry  bottom  will 
be  postponed  until  a  certain  quantity  of  water  has  been  transferred  to 
the  glacier.  It  should  be  observed  that  the  central  part  of  the  bottom, 
freed  from  water,  will  also  be  freed  from  the  surrounding  cold  by  the 
protection  aflForded  by  the  vaporous  mass.  The  quantity  of  snow  formed 
above  the  centre,  at  great  altitude,  will  be  small,  and  of  course  diverged 
during  the  fall.  Evidently  the  dry  central  part,  prevented,  as  shown, 
from  cooling,  will  soon  acquire  a  high  temperature,  admitting  the  for- 

•C»>Arte  der  Gebirge  des  Mondes. 


SCIENTIFIC   INVESTIGATIONS  AND   INVENTIONS.         299 

mation  of  a  vent  for  the  expulsion  of  lava,  called  for  as  the  moon,  whose 
entire  dry  surface  is  radiating  against  space,  shrinks  rapidly  under  the 
forced  refrigeration  attending  glacier-formation.  Lava  cones  similar  to 
those  of  terrestrial  volcanoes,  and  central  to  the  circular  walls,  may  thu3 
be  formed,  the  process  being  favored  by  the  feebleness  of  the  moon's 
attraction.  The  existence  of  warm  springs  on  the  protected  central 
plains  is  very  probable  ;  hence  the  formation  of  cones  of  ice  might  take 
place  during  the  last  stages  of  glacier- formation,  when  those  plains  no 
longer  receive  adequate  protection  against  cold. 

In  accordance  with  the  views  expressed  in  the  monograph  read  be- 
fore the  American  Academy  of  Science,  continued  research  has  con- 
firmed my  supposition  that  the  water  on  the  moon  bears  the  same  pro- 
portion to  its  mass  as  the  water  of  the  ocean  to  the  terrestrial  mass.  I 
have  consequently  calculated  the  contents  of  the  circular  walls  of  the 
"  ring  mountains  "  measured  and  delineated  by  Beer  and  Miidler,  and 
find  that  these  walls  contain  630,000  cubic  miles.  The  oi^posite  hemi- 
sphere of  the  moon  being  subjected  to  similar  vicissitudes  of  heat  and 
cold  as  the  one  presented  to  the  earth,  the  contents  of  the  circular  walls 
not  seen  cannot  vary  very  much  from  those  recorded  in  "Der  Mond ;" 
hence  the  total  will  amount  to  1,260,000  cubic  miles.  Allowing  for  the 
difference  of  specific  gravity  of  ice,  the  stated  amount  represents  1,159,- 
000  cubic  miles  of  water.  But  "  Der  Mond  "  does  not  record  any  of  the 
minor  circular  walls  which,  as  shown  by  the  large  photograph  before 
referred  to,  cover  the  entire  surface  of  some  parts  of  the  moon.  On 
careful  comparison,  it  will  be  found  that  the  contents  of  the  omitted  cir- 
cular formations  is  so  great  that  an  addition  of  fifty  per  cent,  to  the  be- 
fore-stated amount  is  called  for.  An  addition  of  twenty-five  per  cent,  for 
the  ice-fields,  whose  extent  is  indicated  by  cracks  and  optical  phenomena, 
is  likewise  proper.  The  sum  total  of  water  on  the  moon,  therefore, 
amounts  to  2,028,600  cubic  miles. 

Adopting  Herschel's  estimate  of  the  moon's  comparative  mass,  viz., 
0.011364,  and  assuming  that  the  oceans  of  the  earth  cover  130,000,000 
square  miles,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  estimated  quantity  of  water  on  the 
moon  corresponds  with  a  mean  depth  of  7,250  feet  of  the  ten-estrial 
oceans.* 

This  depth  agi-ees  very  nearly  with  the  oceanic  mean  depth  established 
by  the  soundings  for  the  original  Atlantic  cable,  viz.,  7,500  feet;  but 
the  result  of  the  Challenger  Expedition  points  to  a  much  greater  depth. 
This  circumstance  is  by  no  means  conclusive  against  the  supposition 
that  the  satellite  and  the  primary  are  covered  with  water  in  relatively 
equal  quantities.  The  correctness  of  Sir  John  Herschel's  demonstration, 
proving  the  tendency  of  the  water  on  the  lunar  surface  to  flow  to  the 
hemisphere  furthest  from  the  earth,  must  be  disproved  before  we  reject 

*  -raoo 0 0 0 0 0  I  o.WrsbT  =  7,250  feet  mean  depth  of  terrestrial  oceans,  corre- 
sponding with  water  on  the  moon. 


SCIENTIFIC  INVESTIGATIONS  AND  INVENTIONS.  301 

the  assumption  that  the  quantity  of  water  on  the  surface  of  the  moon 
bears  the  same  proportion  to  its  mass  as  the  quantity  of  water  on  the 
earth  to  the  terrestrial  mass.  John  Ericsson. 

The  illustration  upon  the  opposite  page  is  intended  to  rep- 
resent the  appearance  of  a  section  of  the  moon's  surface,  as  seen 
by  earth  light — the  light  of  the  sun  reflected  from  our  planet 
during  the  lunar  night.  The  appearance  of  the  circular  depres- 
sions, ordinarily  supposed  to  indicate  volcanic  action,  is  equally 
suggestive  of  the  operation  described  by  Ericsson. 

Professor  Frankland  tells  us  that  the  idea  of  former  aque- 
ous agency  in  the  moon  has  received  almost  universal  accept- 
ance; but  if  water  has  at  one  time  existed  on  the  surface  of 
the  moon,  whither  has  it  disappeared?  For  lack  of  a  better 
theory  this  authority  hides  the  lunar  oceans  in  interior  caverns, 
left  by  the  shrinkage  of  the  moon  in  cooling;  others  would 
have  us  beheve  that  the  waters  have  withdrawn  to  the  side  of 
the  selenic  sphere  never  turned  toward  us;  and  still  a  third  the- 
ory is  that  a  vagrant  and  greedy  comet  has  sucked  up  the  lunar 
oceans  and  atmosphere,  and  carried  them  far  beyond  the  reach 
of  replevin  into  the  trackless  wastes  of  cosmic  space.  Compare 
Ericsson's  well-reasoned  conclusions  with  such  wild  guesses  as 
these. 

As  the  present  study  of  solar  physics  dates  from  1860,  and 
Ericsson  began  his  investigation  four  years  later,  he  is  one  of 
the  pioneers  in  this  field,  so  fruitful  in  its  promise  of  great 
revelations.  Whatever  the  final  conclusions,  he  is  certain  to 
be  remembered  as  one  who  did  much  to  stimulate  and  direct 
inquiry  in  this  most  important  field  of  physical  research. 
Ericsson's  labors  in  this  field  continued  until  his  death;  they 
afforded  him  congenial  occupation  for  his  declining  years, 
and  removed  him  in  a  measure  from  the  atmosphere  of  con- 
tention in  which  so  large  a  part  of  his  busy  and  aggressive  ca- 
reer had  been  spent.  They  brought  to  him,  too,  the  pleasure 
he  esteemed  chief  of  all — that  of  devoting  twelve  hours  a  day, 
for  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days  in  the  year,  to  useful 
work  without  concern  as  to  pecuniary  reward. 


CHAPTER    XXXYIII. 

THE  HOME  IN  BEACH  STREET. 

The  Philosophy  of  Generous  Living. — Removal  to  St.  John's  Park. — 
Love  of  Flowers. — Description  of  the  Home  at  36  Beach  Street  — 
Changes  in  the  Neighborhood. — The  Park  Destroved. — Annoyances 
and  Remedies. — Carlvle's  Experience  Repeated. — A  Great  Engineer 
as  a  Housekeeper. — Experience  as  a  Rat-catcher. — Diarv  and  Ac- 
counts.— Growing  Eccentricities. — Prejudice  against  Modern  In- 
vention.— Human  Inconsistency. — Hermit  Life. — Spartan  Habits. — 
Temperance  Ideas. — Exact  Methods  of  Living. — Celebrating  Octo- 
genarian Birthdays. — Recollections  of  Youthful  Days. 

SOME  years  after  he  had  removed,  in  1S43,  from  the  Astor 
House  to  Xo.  95  Franklin  Street,  and  adopted  the  habit 
of  taking  liis  meals  at  the  Union  Club,  Ericsson  wrote  to  Mr. 
Sargent,  at  whose  instance  this  change  was  made,  to  say,  "  You 
have  added  ten  years  to  mv  life  in  callini'  rav  mind  to  generous 
living,  by  bringing  me  to  the  club.  I  can  say  with  truth  that  I 
am  now  capable  of  undergoing  twice  as  much  labor  as  when  I 
left  the  Astor  House.  The  difference  between  living  well  and 
ill  in  this  climate  is  in  fact  quite  incredible.  Men,  like  en- 
gines, require  food  to  keep  up  steam."  At  Franklin  Street  he 
continued  for  twenty-one  years,  or  until  1S64,  when  his  friends 
ui-ged  him  to  buy  a  house  at  Xo.  36  Beach  Street,  offered  at 
the  price  of  8-<-',000.  Mr.  Delamater,  who  had  prospered 
through  his  connection  with  work  upon  the  monitors,  asked 
that  the  property  be  purchased  for  him,  in  case  his  friend  did 
not  desire  to  invest  in  it  himself,  generously  adding,  "  If  you 
do  buy  on  your  own  account,  the  whole  of  the  purchase  money 
can  be  ari-anged  for  you  with  the  aid  of,  yours  truly,  C.  H. 
Delamater."  The  house  was  bought  in  April,  1S64,  and  Mr. 
John  A.  Griswold,  Ericsson's  associate  in  the  monitor  con- 
tracts, who  was  then  a  member  of  Congress,  wrote  to  say:  "If 
I  did  not  express  my  pleasure  at  hearing  of  your  having  se- 


THE  HOME  IN  BEACH  STKEET.  303 

cured  a  dwelling-place  at  once  comfortable  and  respectable,  I 
certainly  felt  it.  1  know  of  no  one  more  thoroughly  entitled 
to  such  provision.  My  wonder  is  that  you  should  so  long  have 
denied  yourself.  I  think  if  you  could  not  afford  it  yourself,  I 
know  of  friends  who  would  consider  themselves  able,  as  they 
certainly  would  be  willing,  to  aid  you,  under  the  feeling  that  it 
was  the  least  of  your  deserts." 

Happily,  Ericsson  could  afford  it,  and  to  the  purchase 
money  of  the  house  he  added  several  thousand  dollars  for  re- 
pairing and  furnishing,  as  appears  from  this  statement  of  ac- 
count : 

Cost  to  put  36  Beach  Street  in  good  repair $1,749.26 

For  furniture  for  36  Beach  Street 2,646.85 

Cost  to  get  into  Beach  Street $4,396.11 

The  fact  that  this  amount  exceeded  the  estimated  expendi- 
ture by  more  than  twenty  per  cent.,  shows*  that  in  matters  of 
household  economy  the  skilled  mathematician  is  as  much  at 
fault  as  the  youngest  housekeeper. 

Beach  Street  is  a  short  street  running  toward  the  Hudson 
River,  on  the  west  side  of  Xew  York,  a  few  blocks  below 
Canal  Street.  At  this  time,  it  was  the  southern  boundary  of 
Saint  John's  Park,  and  the  noble  trees  of  this  beautiful  private 
square  were  in  full  view  from  Ericsson's  front  windows. 

The  grounds  of  the  park  were  kept  in  excellent  order,  and 
the  location  was  in  every  way  desirable  for  one  who  was  not 
seeking  a  fashionable  quarter.  The  busy  engineer  was  accus- 
tomed to  stand,  in  the  early  spring,  at  his  open  windows  and 
watch  with  delight  the  bursting  buds  of  the  beeches  and  chest- 
nuts, some  of  the  finest  on  Manhattan  Island.  He  loved  the 
green  grass  and  sight  of  flowers,  trying  with  indifferent  suc- 
cess to  establish  flower-beds  in  his  little  back-yard,  so  that  he 
might  occasionally  see  his  favorite,  the  rose. 

His  house  was  one  of  a  row  of  comfortable  residences 
standing  on  full  city  lots,  and  having  an  air  of  dignity  and  old- 
time  elegance  recalling  the  days  when  the  City  Hall  Park 
was  a  centre  of  fashion.  The  marble  steps,  the  carved  door- 
cashigs  and  fan-lights,  the  massive  mahogany  fittings  of  the 


304 


LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 


interior,  all  bespoke  the  state  of  earlier  occupants.  The  forces 
of  steam  and  iron,  which  its  new  owner  had  spent  his  life  in 
developing,  were  fast  transforming  that  quarter  of  the  town, 
but  this  little  oasis  of  a  park  still  remained  as  a  memorial  of 
better  days.  Commerce  now  pressed  in  from  all  sides,  and  soon 
the  park  grounds  were  in  demand  for  a  freight  depot;  railroad 
cars  and  tracks  displaced  the  stately  trees;    bare  walls  suc- 


Exterior  View  of  Ericsson's  House,  No.  36  Beach  Street,  New  York,  1890. 


ceeded  to  pleasant  verdure;  the  rattle  of  carts  and  the  screech 
of  locomotives  followed  the  singing  of  birds  and  the  chatter 
of  squirrels.  To  oblige  a  friend,  Ericsson  joined  in  the  trans- 
fer of  the  park  rights  to  the  Hudson  River  Railroad  Company; 
but  if  he  lost  this  bit  of  sentiment  out  of  his  life,  he  gratified 
a  deeper  feeling  by  succoring  starving  Swedes  with  the  money 
he  thus  received.     The  neighborhood  henceforth  deteriorated 


THE   HOME   IN  BEACH  STREET.  305 

rapidly  in  character,  and  a  tenement  population  displaced  the 
more  quiet  residents.  The  owner  of  number  36  talked  of 
moving,  but  he  found  it  difficult  to  suit  himself  elsewhere,  and 
with  years  came  a  growing  horror  of  change.  Besides,  he  be- 
gan to  realize  that  he  had  found  a  good  hiding-place,  and,  as 
he  grimly  said,  the  ladies  ceased  to  visit  him  in  that  unpromis- 
ing locality.  If  they  absented  themselves,  other  enemies  to 
repose  were  constantly  with  him.  The  reflection  from  the 
walls  of  the  freight-house  disturbed  him  as  he  sat  at  his  desk, 
just  under  the  front  windows,  and  he  had  an  invincible  prej- 
udice against  curtains  or  blinds.  A  medley  of  inharmonious 
sounds  interfered  with  his  rest  at  night,  and  his  work  during 
the  day.  The  rattle  of  drays,  carrying  their  heavy  loads  of  rail- 
road freight,  made  a  constant  racket,  and  the  jarring  motion  of 
a  stationary  engine  across  the  street  disturbed  his  sleep,  until 
he  adopted  the  expedient  of  inserting  numerous  thicknesses 
of  felting  under  his  bed-posts.  As  he  shared  Thomas  Carlyle's 
antipathy  to  a  crowing  cock,  he  was  obliged  to  follow  Mrs. 
Carlyle's  plan  of  purchasing  all  the  chickens  in  his  neighbor- 
hood to  secure  the  privilege  of  wringing  their  necks.  With 
the  owners  of  barking  dogs,  agreements  of  this  sort  were 
entered  into: 

New  York,  August  16,  1877. 
I  herewith  agree  to  remove  the  dog  now  on  the  premises  37  North 
Moore  Street,  and  further,  not  to  keep  any  dog  on  said  premises  for  the 
term  of  one  year  from  date,  for  the  consideration  of  five  dollars  paid  to 
me  by  Captain  John  Ericsson. 

Charles  Herbert. 

He  obtained  permission  from  a  neighbor  to  enter  his  prem- 
ises and  pad  the  wall  of  his  room  with  mattresses — covered  to 
correspond  with  the  furniture — so  as  to  shut  out  the  sound  of 
a  piano  separated  by  only  a  thin  party-wall  from  the  desk  at 
which  he  worked. 

By  an  offer  of  two  handsome  gold  watches,  he  endeavored 
to  persuade  two  young  ladies  who  practised  their  scales  in 
another  house  adjoining  to  postpone  their  exercises  until  his 
morning  sleep  was  over.  With  such  ingenious  and  conciliatory 
methods  he  tried  to  secure  the  quiet  so  essential  to  his  work. 
Vol.  II.— 20 


306  LIFE   OF  JOHN   ERICSSON. 

But  there  were  some  intruders  upon  his  peace  who  were  proof 
against  his  beguilements.  When  he  took  possession  of  his  new 
quarters  he  found  liis  occupancy  disputed  by  a  numerous  horde 
of  rats,  who  considered  themselves  tenants  at  will,  and  stub- 
bornly refused  to  yield  possession.  "  Regarding  the  situation  as 
a  problem  to  be  solved  by  mechanical  means,  with  his  own 
hands  he  drew  the  plans  for  a  vast  and  mighty  trap.  To  the 
leading  idea  (of  a  water-tank  beneath  a  trap-door)  he  laid  no 
claim,  but  the  details  were  wholly  new,  and  upon  an  unheard- 
of  scale.  Tracings  were  made  by  an  assistant  draughtsman, 
and  went  the  rounds  of  the  shop  ;  the  pattern-maker,  the  brass- 
founder,  the  finisher,  the  carpenter,  the  tinsmith,  each  had  a 
share  in  this  novel  work.  At  last  it  was  completed  and  erected  ; 
it  filled  up  half  the  basement,  and  was  baited  with  half  a 
cheese.  He  had  originally  intended  to  use  a  whole  one,  but 
though  cost  had  been  disregarded  in  making  the  trap,  he  sud- 
denly became  gravely  economical  in  the  matter  of  bait,  and  at 
last  decided  that  one  moiety  would  suffice  ;  the  other  being 
placed  in  an  adjoining  room,  to  guide  the  noble  army  of  martyrs 
in  the  road  to  ruin.  But  he  had  underestimated  the  cunning 
of  the  rodents  ;  as  a  place  for  keeping  cheese  in  safety,  the  pon- 
derous engine  answered  admirably,  but  it  did  not  even  frighten 
away  the  obnoxious  animals  ;  and  he  was  forced  to  admit  that 
'  these  little  beasts  have  brains  altogether  too  big  for  their 
heads.' 

"  Before  this  time,  when  some  over-ambitious  and  unsuc- 
cessful piece  of  mechanism  came  to  his  notice,  he  used  to  say, 
like  many  another,  '  the  man  who  contrived  that  couldn't  i)lan 
a  rat  trap.'  And  the  force  of  habit  sometimes  impelled  him 
even  afterward  to  use  the  same  familiar  ejaculation ;  but  the 
memory  of  this  failure  was  ever  present  with  him,  and  with  a 
merry  twinkle  in  his  clear  blue  eyes  he  invariably  added,  '  and 
I  couldn't  do  that,  either.'  "  * 

Ericsson  was  assisted  in  his  engineering  work,  during  the 
closing  years  of  his  life,  by  Mr.  Y.  F.  Lasscie,  a  native  of  Den- 
mark, and  his  private  secretary  for  twenty-five  years  was  Mr. 
Samuel  "W".  Taylor,  a  gentleman  whose  thorough  acquaintance 
with  his  peculiar  ways  made  him  indispensable.     He  grew  so 

•  Professor  C.  W.  MacCord  in  the  Scientific  American. 


THE   HOME   IN   BEACH   STEEET.  30? 

accustomed  to  his  secretary's  clear  chirography  that  when,  in  his 
later  years,  the  type-writer  favored  liiiu  with  a  letter,  he  would 
insist  upon  having  it  copied  into  script  before  he  would  read 
it.  Indeed,  the  hostility  to  invention  in  matters  concerning 
himself,  shown  by  this  doughty  champion  of  progress  against 
prejudice,  is  a  curious  commentary  upon  the  inconsistency  of 
human  nature.  He  was  accustomed  to  ascribe  naval  hostility 
to  innovation,  to  the  confinement  of  naval  officers  within  the 
narrow  limits  of  a  man-of-war,  forgetting  that  he  was  himself 
confined  within  a  still  more  contracted  sphere,  and  that  he  was 
quite  as  much  the  victim  of  conservative  prejudices.  Numer- 
ous objections  were  urged  against  the  copying-press  when  it 
was  first  introduced,  and  those  existing  in  Ericsson's  mind  were 
never  overcome.  He  would  have  nothing  but  manuscript 
copies  of  his  letters,  sometimes  sending  the  copy  with  his  sig- 
nature, and  retaining  the  original. 

As  he  was  particular  to  keep  copies  of  his  lettei's,  this  in- 
volved no  small  amount  of  unnecessary  labor.  In  the  matter 
of  keeping  accounts  he  was  even  more  peculiar,  and  it  was 
difficult  to  follow  his  financial  transactions,  as  the  memoranda 
on  his  checks-books  were  his  only  record  of  money  received  or 
coming  due  to  him.  Yet  his  receipts  in  one  day  counted  a 
single  item  of  half  a  million  dollars  paid  in  ten  $50,000  Treasury 
certificates.  The  papers  transferred  to  me  for  the  preparation 
of  this  biography  numbered  nearly  twelve  thousand,  and  includ- 
ed very  complete  files  of  letters  received  and  sent  after  1860. 
Most  of  the  papers  of  an  earlier  date  were  destroyed  in  1886. 
The  destruction  of  his  diaries,  containing  daily  memoranda  in  a 
curious  mixture  of  Swedish  and  English,  was  decreed  about 
the  same  time.  The  entries,  extending  over  fifty  years,  were 
contained  in  a  series  of  little  blank-books  bound  in  red  leather, 
such  as  are  used  for  keeping  accounts.  I  discovered  these 
diaries  standing  in  imposing  array  one  day  upon  Ericsson's 
shelves ;  when  I  next  saw  them  nothing  but  the  covers  re- 
mained. Their  leaves,  containing  the  story  of  Ericsson's  life 
for  half  a  century,  had  been  put  under  a  cutting  machine, 
sliced  into  fragments,  and  sent  to  the  paper  mill. 

The  indiscretion  of  Carlyle's  biographer,  in  exposing  some 
of  his  unhappy  experiences,  prompted  this  act  of  destruction. 


308  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

Ericsson  hud  no  time  to  revise  his  diary,  and  was  not  disposed 
to  intrust  the  task  to  another.  In  looking  it  over  he  found  in 
it — as  any  man  would  under  like  circumstances — evidences 
of  mistaken  ideas  and  impressions  that  he  did  not  care  to  per- 
petuate. The  only  way  a  growing  man  can  live  at  peace  with 
such  a  chronicle  is  never  to  look  at  it.  To  come  into  daily  in- 
tercourse with  one's  dead  past  is  like  consorting  with  the  dwel- 
lers in  the  catacombs.  Occasionally,  when  his  attention  was 
called  to  some  opinion  he  had  expressed  years  before,  or  to  some 
drawing  he  had  forgotten,  Ericsson  found  what  he  regarded  as 
an  indictment  against  himself  so  unanswerable,  that  he  was  led 
to  exclaim  in  his  vigorous  way: 

"Did  I  write  that?  Is  that  my  drawing?  Then  I  must 
have  been  a  d d  fool  when  I  made  it!" 

Though  he  adhered  with  extraordinary  tenacity  to  opinions 
once  deliberately  formed,  and  the  more  tenaciously  the  more 
he  was  opposed,  the  natural  movement  of  progress  would  carry 
him  so  far  beyond  his  conclusions  of  a  given  time  that  he  came 
finally  to  look  back  upon  them  with  that  sort  of  half-pitying 
contempt  the  wise  man  bestows  upon  the  errors  once  fellow- 
shipped,  but  no  longer  identified  with  his  mental  processes. 

John  Ericsson  lived  for  his  work,  and  he  had  no  wish  that 
anything  beyond  a  record  of  that  should  surs'ive  him.  In  1888 
the  curator  of  the  Stockholm  INIuseum  asked  for  some  of  his 
personal  belongings,  to  be  added  to  its  treasures.  In  his  impa- 
tience to  deny  this  inadmissible  request,  the  subject  of  it  spent 
thirty  dollars  in  speeding  under  the  Atlantic  this  telegraphic 
reply: 

Arthur  Hazelius,  Stockholm:  Documents  received.  Accept  my 
cordial  thanks,  but  permit  me  to  inform  you  that  I  take  no  interest  in 
museums  which  preserve  rehcs  of  barbarism  and  iijnorance  of  past  gen- 
erations.    Again,  time  will  soon  convert  such  relics  into  heaps  of  mould. 

Please  do  not  prepare  any  place  for  the  reception  of  relics  expected 
from  me,  as  nothing  will  be  left  after  me  to  show  how  imperfect  my 
knowledge  was.  I  have  already  destroyed  upward  of  one  thousand 
drawings,  and  numerous  models,  to  prevent  posterity  from  supposing 
that  my  knowledge  was  as  imperfect  as  said  relics  would  indicate. 
Nothing  will  be  left  at  last  but  the  corpse  of 

John  Ericsson. 
New  York,  June  19,  1888. 


THE   HOME  IN  BEACH  STREET.  309 

Within  another  year  Ericsson  was  dead,  and  the  museum 
was  soon  in  proud  possession  of  the  entire  furniture  and  fit- 
tings of  the  room  where  he  labored  for  a  quarter  of  a  century. 
They  were  transported  to  Stockholm,  and  placed  in  a  room  re- 
producing, as  nearly  as  possible,  his  work-room  in  Beach  Street. 
A  copy  of  the  photograph  showing  the  appearance  of  the  room 
at  the  time  of  Ericsson's  death  is  given  on  page  314. 

The  fact  that  Ericsson  never  rode  upon  the  elevated  rail- 
road is  an  illustration  of  his  conservatism  in  minor  matters. 
He  declared  that  the  Czar  of  Russia  would  be  assassinated  if 
he  should  build  such  a  structure  through  the  streets  of  St. 
Petersburg.  He  never  saw  the  Central  Park,  and  would  never 
have  seen  the  Brooklyn  Bridge,  had  not  his  secretary  driven 
on  it  when  they  were  out  together,  without  telling  him  where 
they  were  going.  He  was  one  of  the  first  investors  in  the  At- 
lantic telegraph,  but  he  always  wondered  at  himself  for  this 
venture,  as  he  was  ready  at  that  time  to  furnish  a  conclusive 
demonstration  of  the  impossibility  of  making  the  cable  a  suc- 
cess. He  was  accustomed  to  refer  to  this  as  an  illustration  of 
the  fallibility  of  engineering  judgments.  It  was  long  before 
he  could  believe  in  the  reality  of  the  telephone,  and  he  offered 
to  bet  his  secretary  a  suit  of  clothes  that  he  was  deceived  when 
he  supposed  that  he  heard  through  it  the  voice  of  a  distant 
person.  In  the  end  he  conceived  a  great  admiration  for  its 
inventor,  Edison. 

Ericsson  dwelt,  with  an  old  man's  pride,  upon  the  fact  that 
he  was  in  good  working  condition  for  three  hundred  and  sixty- 
five  days  in  the  year,  in  spite  of  his  confinement,  summer  and 
winter,  to  a  district  of  the  city  where  the  gutters  ran  with  filth, 
the  air  was  heavy  with  the  mingled  odors  of  a  tenement  district, 
and  not  a  pleasant  sight  or  sound  regaled  his  senses.  To  a 
friend,  who  had  withdrawn  to  his  country-place  for  the  sum- 
mer, he  wrote  in  July,  1862,  "I  also  enjoy  a  change  of  air  as 
usual  during  July  and  August,  during  which  months  the  fumes 
from  the  gutters  are  much  stronger  than  at  other  seasons,  pro- 
ductive of  a  decided  change  of  the  atmospheric  constituents,  ben- 
eficial, it  would  appear,  to  the  'worn-out'  old  fellow  who  has 
had  no  occasion  to  seek  any  other  than  the  change  mentioned 
during  a  succession  of  forty-three  years.     Indeed,  so  well  does 


310  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

it  agree  with  liim  that  he  now  can  boast  of  pristine  vigor,  and 
may  be  found  at  11  p.m.,  during  onr  pleasant  warm  evenings, 
stooping  over  his  drawing-table."  There  was  something,  no 
doubt,  of  octogenarian  delusion  in  this,  and  his  physician's  re- 
port would  have  modified  the  statement.  He  never  would 
own,  even  to  himself,  that  he  was  out  of  condition,  and  kept 
at  work  during  the  last  twelve  or  fourteen  years  of  his  life  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  he  suffered  from  the  disorder  that  re- 
sulted in  the  death  of  his  son.  He  insisted  upon  studying  his 
own  case,  and  would  follow  the  doctors  directions  only  so  far 
as  he  approved  them.  His  physician  was  under  a  pledge  to 
inform  him  of  the  first  symptom  of  approaching  dissolution, 
and  he  resolved  that  he  would  not  take  to  his  bed  except  in 
the  last  extremity. 

Until  within  a  few  days  of  his  death,  he  followed  the  rigid 
regime  described  in  previous  chapters.  The  food  and  drink 
constituting  his  simple  diet  were  chosen  with  care  and  meas- 
ured with  exactness.  The  windows  of  his  sleeping-room  must 
be  opened  just  so  many  inches,  summer  and  winter  ;  he  must 
have  his  calisthenics  for  two  hours  each  morning,  followed  by 
a  sponge-bath  and  vigorous  rubbing  ;  as  plumbing  was  one  of 
his  antipathies,  there  was  no  bath-room  in  his  house.  "  I  have 
important  work  before  me,"  he  wrote  after  he  had  passed  his 
eighty-second  year,  "  and  hence  live  like  a  man  training  for  a 
fight.  My  reward  is  unbroken  health.  I  digest  my  food  as 
well  now  as  I  did  at  thirty.  Nor  is  my  muscle  less  tough  and 
elastic  than  at  that  age."  This  view  of  his  bodily  conditions 
was,  as  I  have  said,  somewhat  too  optimistic,  although  true  to 
the  general  fact. 

When  he  was  over  sixty  years  old,  a  visitor  at  Mr.  Stough- 
ton's  house,  coming  unannounced  into  the  room  where  the  fam- 
ily were  gathered,  was  astounded  by  the  spectacle  of  the  famed 
designer  of  the  Monitor  giving  proof  of  his  athletic  abilities  by 
standing  upon  his  head. 

Captain  Ericsson  abandoned  the  use  of  intoxicants  when  he 
was  fifty  years  old,  as  he  once  told  me.  His  usual  beverages 
were  water,  cooled  in  summer  with  ice  to  a  temperature  15°  to 
20°  below  that  of  the  air,  and  hot  tea  made  very  strong.  While 
he  lived  in  England,  he  followed  the  custom  of  the  country : 


THE  HOME  IN  BEACH  STREET.  311 

this  he  describes  as  at  that  time  a  continuous  round  of  eating 
and  drinking.  He  seems,  later  on,  to  have  acquired  a  prejudice 
against  drinking  habits.  To  an  impecunious  countryman  who 
asked  for  money  to  fit  up  a  liquor  saloon,  he  answered  that  he 
would  never  give  a  dollar  to  help  anyone  to  engage  in  the  de- 
moralizing business  of  liquor  selling.  Again,  on  receipt  of  a 
bill  from  the  contractors  for  one  of  his  monitors  for  the  ex- 
penses of  a  trial  trip,  his  secretary  wrote,  saying : 


Captain  Ericsson  directs  me  to  ask  you  to  inform  him  if,  of  your  own 
knowledge,  156  bottles  of  spirituous  liquors  were  consumed  by  the  guests 
invited  to  be  present  during  said  trial  trip.  If  the  above  quantity  of 
liquor  was  really  consumed,  the  occasion  looks  more  like  a  bacchanalian 
feast  than  a  trial  trip  of  a  small  gun-boat.  Captain  Ericsson  desires  to 
be  informed  if  the  trial  of  the  vessel  was  really  made  the  occasion  of 
such  a  disgraceful  feast  before  settling  the  bill. 


Still  he  did  not  believe  in  sumptuary  laws.  Replying  to  a 
pamphlet  suggesting  their  adoption  in  Sweden,  he  said :  "  The 
great  danger  that  threatens  our  dear  country  cannot  be  averted 
by  a  royal  prohibition  of  the  distillation  of  spirits.  Evidently, 
you  have  not  considered  how  many  crimes  would  result  from 
such  a  prohibition,  prompted  by  a  love  of  gain  and  a  desire  for 
the  forbidden  liquor.  Nor  would  the  liberal-minded  Swede 
long  submit  to  such  restraint.  Consideration  should  also  be 
given  to  the  fact  that  the  majority  are  accustomed  to  take 
brandy,  and  that  most  of  them  consider  this  liquor  to  be  whole- 
some." In  place  of  prohibition  he  recommended  the  plan,  sub- 
sequently adopted  and  applied  by  Act  of  Congress  to  the  Na- 
tional Military  and  Naval  Academies,  of  instructing  the  young 
as  to  the  injurious  effects  of  strong  liquors.  After  he  had 
pursued  his  temperance  regime  for  many  years,  one  of  his  old- 
est friends  took  occasijon  to  remind  him  of  earlier  experiences, 
saying  :  "  It  does  not  seem  to  me  forty  years  or  more  since  you 
could  put  your  full  share  of  three  bottles  of  champagne  under 
your  jacket  of  a  hot  day  at  the  Union  Club.  No,  nor  that 
time  since  you  could  take  your  dozen  oysters  of  an  evening  at 
Florence's,  and  wash  them  down  with  a  stiff  glass  of  whiskey 
toddy.     And  now  you  pass  as  a  water-drinker,  and  think  me  no 


312  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

better  than  one  of  the  wicked  because  I  have  drunk  a  pint  of 
wine  every  day  for  these  forty  years."  But  sharing  three  bot- 
tles of  wine  was  a  very  rare  indulgence  at  any  time,  and  even 
this  boon  companion  of  his  convivial  years  could  recall  no  sim- 
ilar experience. 

The  domestic  establishment  at  36  Beach  Street  had  been 
for  many  years  under  the  care  of  a  tidy  little  Irish  woman,  who 
was  cook  as  well  as  housekeeper.  She  had  learned  to  accom- 
modate herself  to  her  master's  simple  tastes  and  eccentric 
ways;  knew  just  how  long  to  keep  the  two  loaves  of  bread 
adorning  his  dining-room  mantel  until  they  had  grown  suffi- 
ciently stale  for  his  use;  knew  how  to  place  the  two  hundred 
and  forty  pins  required  to  make  faultlessly  smooth  the  sheet 
covering  the  mattress  upon  which  he  slept;  stood  guard  over 
his  privacy,  and  kept  her  housewifely  zeal  for  cleanliness  sub- 
ject to  the  necessities  of  his  comfort.  Indeed,  Ann  Cassidy 
thoroughly  avenged  her  sex  upon  the  man  who  sought  to  make 
himself  independent  of  women,  for  she  succeeded  in  making 
at  least  one  of  them  indispensable  to  him. 

The  Beach  Street  house  was  put  into  perfect  order  when 
Ericsson  took  possession  of  it,  an  observatory  upon  the  roof 
for  solar  experiments  being  added;  but  he  was  unwilling  to  be 
disturbed  by  the  confusion  of  repairs,  and  it  gradually  as- 
similated itself  to  the  general  shabbiness  of  the  neighborhood. 
Symptoms  of  house-cleaning  gave  him  such  distress,  that  at- 
tempts in  that  direction  were  abandoned  unless  he  had  con- 
sented to  them  previously;  and  there  were  positive  orders  that 
nothinor  should  be  done  without  his  directions.  He  was  so 
opposed  to  newness,  that  the  carpets  in  the  rooms  he  occupied 
were  replaced  piece  by  piece  as  they  wore  out,  until  half  a 
dozen  patterns  were  to  be  found  upon  a  single  floor,  and  a  new 
carpet  was  hung  up  for  a  year  in  the  attic  to  season  before  it 
was  considered  fit  for  use.  The  smell  of  new  paint  so  troubled 
him,  that  when  it  had  been  on  one  occasion  applied  to  a  new 
tin  roof  upon  his  piazza,  a  workman  was  required  to  soak  it  off 
with  gallons  of  still  more  offensive  benzine. 

This  was  the  condition  of  Ericsson's  house  toward  the  end 
of  his  life:  His  parlor  and  dining-room,  with  their  heavy 
chandeliers  and  mantel  mirrors,  had  a  certain  air  of  old-fash- 


THE  HOME  IN  BEACH  STREET.  313 

ioned  dignity,  but  the  handsomely  finished  and  exquisitely 
polished  specimens  of  his  solar  apparatus  occupied  every  cor- 
ner of  the  parlor  and  gave  it  the  appearance  of  an  alcove  in 
the  Patent  Office.  An  oil  portrait  belonging  to  a  friend,  a  bust 
of  Mr.  E.  W.  Stoughton,  an  elaborately  engraved  and  framed 
copy  of  the  resolutions  passed  by  the  Legislature  of  the  State  of 
New  York  on  the  occasion  of  the  Monitor  fight,  and  a  portrait  of 
Gustavus  V.  Fox,  were  the  only  specimens  of  artistic  adornment 
displayed  about  the  house.  Ericsson  never  found  time  for  the 
cultivation  of  a  taste  for  art,  and  there  was  a  noteworthy  ab- 
sence in  his  house  of  everything  appealing  to  aesthetic  senti- 
ment; but  the  pins  in  the  cushion  on  his  bedroom  bureau  were 
always  arranged  by  himself  so  that  they  should  be  in  exact 
mathematical  rows.  Utility,  and  not  taste,  controlled  the  ap- 
pointments of  his  house.  Emancipated  from  the  tyranny  of 
domestic  tradition,  he  was  permitted  to  make  it  what  he  intended 
it  should  be — the  abiding  place  of  the  genius  of  labor,  the  apos- 
tle of  the  steam  engine,  the  prime  minister  of  the  tremendous 
forces  shaping  modern  civilization.  What  time  had  he,  bound 
to  the  service  of  these  stupendous  powers,  to  do  aught  but  their 
bidding?  Domestic  life,  luxury,  and  ease  were  not  for  him. 
His  keen  eye  must  see  only  the  path  of  stern,  absorbing  labor; 
his  powerful  brain  and  indomitable  will  must  be  ever  in  com- 
mand of  his  unwearied  hands,  in  their  never-ending  toil.  No 
wife,  no  children  must  intrude  the  tenderness  of  love  to  soften 
the  rigor  of  his  purpose,  or  to  interfere  for  one  moment  with 
his  chosen  work. 

The  room  used  by  Ericsson  when  at  work  was  large  and 
pleasant,  occupying  the  entire  front  of  twenty-five  feet,  the 
partition  of  the  hall  bedroom  having  been  cut  away  to  form 
an  alcove.  Here  stood  the  table  covered  by  the  inclined  draw- 
ing-board upon  which  the  master's  hand  had  wrought  such 
marvels. 

"As  a  draughtsman,"  Professor  MacCord  testifies,  "Ericsson 
had  no  rival,  past  or  present,  and  the  outlines  of  new  devices 
grew  upon  the  paper  as  if  by  magic."  This  is  the  testimony 
of  all  his  assistants.  He  was  never  so  happy  as  w^hen  en- 
gaged with  his  drawing.  At  his  side  stood  always  ready,  a 
Btore  of  pencils  carefully  sharpened  to  a  convenient  length  for 


3U 


LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON". 


his  holder.  Kear  at  hand  was  another  box  filled  with  ends  of 
rubber  and  an  assortment  of  spectacles  ;  while  a  third  tiny  box 
held  bits  of  plaster  cut  to  exact  length  to  cover  the  splits  in  his 
finger-nails  that  gave  token  of  advancing  years.  He  sat  at  his 
work  upon  an  ordinary  horse-hair  piano-stool  raised  to  a  con- 
venient height  by  the  addition  of  a  rough  wooden  box,  un- 
painted,  and  polished  only  by  use.  This  box,  or  a  dictionary, 
served  him  for  a  pillow  when  he  turned  aside  from  his  work  to 
stretch  himself  out  at  full  length  for  a  nap  on  a  table  standing 
opposite  his  desk.     Until  the  bright  idea  of  lengthening  it  oc- 


View  of  the  Room  in  which  Ericsson  Worked  for  Twenty-five  Years. 

HiB  work-table  is  shown  in  the  corner ;  the  table  on  which  he  slept  opposite  to  it,  and  his 
piano-stool  seat  between  them. 

curred  to  him  one  day,  he  slept  most  uncomfortably  with  his 
legs  dangling  over  the  edge  of  the  table. 

He  would  not  suffer  the  infirmities  of  age  to  be. formally 
presented  ;  they  nmst  come  upon  him  unannounced,  and  no 
hint  of  their  presence  was  allowed.  The  walnut  table  where 
he  lay,  when  during  his  working  hours  he  suffered  sleep  to 
steal  upon  him,  was  only  a  degree  less  hard  than  the  bed  to 
which  he  retired  after  midnight  for  his  seven  hours  of  dream- 
less repose.  No  lounge,  no  arm-chair,  no  contrivance  of  any 
kind  for  the  relaxation  natural  to  old  age,  was  found  in  the 


THE  HOME   IN   BEACH   STKEET.  316 

home  of  this  Spartan  octogenarian,  Ko  persuasion  could  induce 
liim  to  adopt  the  hixury  of  a  bed  in  the  daytime,  and  he  re- 
fused to  use  a  reclining  chair  brought  to  him  in  his  dying 
hours,  because  it  was  made  upon  a  false  mechanical  principle. 
Toward  the  end  he  stretched  himself  at  more  frequent  inter- 
vals and  for  longer  periods  upon  his  table,  but  it  required  much 
gentle  force  to  remove  him  to  his  bed  for  his  "  last,  long, 
dreamless  sleep." 

Before  the  large  mantel  in  Ericsson's  work-room  stood  two 
vases  made  from  the  wood  of  the  vessels  sunk  by  the  Merri- 
mac,  the  Cuviberland  and  the  Congress.  Near  by  were  two 
crockery  pitchers  containing  pyramids  of  artificial  flowers. 
"  We  will  have  flowers,"  said  this  lover  of  roses.  "  But  natural 
flowers  fade  and  require  attention — let  us  have  these." 

"  On  a  projecting  pilaster  near  the  left  of  his  drawing-table 
[which  is  seen  in  the  cut  on  the  opposite  page]  were  two  bell- 
pulls,  marked  respectively  '  L  '  and  '  T.'  These  were  later  addi- 
tions, leading  to  the  room  above,  occupied  by  his  superintending 
engineer  and  his  secretary.  In  the  early  days  he  employed  no 
such  labor-saving  device,  but,  marching  to  the  hall-door,  he 
would  summon  '  Mr.  Lassoe  '  or  '  Mr.  Taylor,'  with  a  deep  chest- 
voice, not  musical,  but  clear  as  a  trumpet,  and  of  a  volume 
which  would  have  wakened  them  had  they  been  sleeping,  and 
at  least  have  startled  them  if  they  had  been  dead. 

"  One  mechanical  appliance,  however,  there  was  even  then 
in  this  room.  His  fireplace,  which  in  winter  was  generously 
fed  with  Cumberland  coal,  had,  as  he  conceived,  some  affection 
of  the  throat,  which  he  proceeded  to  treat  in  a  manner  of  his 
own.  He  had  made  for  it  a  cast-iron  damper,  turning  on 
pivots  at  the  ends,  and  operated  from  the  front  by  means  of  a 
rod  fitted  vvith  a  screw  and  a  polished  hand-wheel,  the  tracings 
for  which  were  duly  returned  from  Delamater's  marked,  with 
the  shop  name,  '  Reversing  gear  for  Captain  Ericsson's  fire- 
place,' a  bit  of  humor  which  he  keenly  enjoyed  ;  if  there  was 
no  music  in  his  voice,  there  was  no  lack  of  it  in  his  laughter, 
which  was  free,  hearty,  and  contagious. 

"  Upon  the  oval  table  was  a  model  of  a  gun-carriage,  with  a 
gun  for  firing  torpedoes,  which,  having  been  brought  down 
some  years  ago  for  exhibition  to  some  gentlemen  interested  in 


316  LIFE   OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

the  subject,  happened  to  be  left  there,  and  it  is  the  only  model 
which  ever  was  in  this  room  for  any  length  of  time."* 

Ericsson's  bedroom,  in  the  rear  of  his  house,  was  bright  and 
sunny,  but  the  outlook  from  the  windows  was  over  a  dreary 
waste  of  shabby  and  odorous  stables  and  tenement-houses,  and 
the  square  plot  in  the  centre  of  the  yard,  where  flowers  and 
grass  were  intended  to  grow,  was  covered  by  a  wooden  plat- 
form for  setting  up  experimental  solar  engines.  He  was  by  no 
means  regardless  of  comfort,  but  his  ideas  of  what  was  most 
essential  to  comfort  differed  from  the  conventional  standard. 
Sunlight  was  good  for  him,  and  hence  blinds  and  curtains  were 
forbidden.  Fresh  paints  were  poison,  and  the  dyes  in  new  car- 
pets subject  to  the  same  objection;  so  he  would  have  none  of 
them  where  he  dwelt.  Sanitary,  and  not  sentimental,  considera- 
tions controlled  his  household.  Around  himself  he  drew  a  sa- 
cred circle  within  which  none  must  obtrude.  Beyond  this  all 
was  free,  and  the  housekeeper  maintained  her  tidy  menage,  and 
set  up  her  altar  to  the  Virgin  in  an  upper  room,  without  moles- 
tation. 

Curious  contrivances  here  and  there  about  his  rooms  illus- 
trated the  great  engineer's  ingenuity  in  providing  for  his  per- 
sonal convenience.  In  a  doorway  of  his  bedroom  two  short 
ropes  with  nippers  at  the  ends  hung  at  about  the  height  of  his 
shoulders.  To  these  nippers  he  fastened  his  coat,  so  that  he 
could  get  into  it  without  lifting  too  high  his  rheumatic  arms, 
or  subjecting  himself  to  the  humiliation  of  asking  assistance. 
Eighteen  hods  of  coal  were  placed  just  outside  his  bedroom  door, 
and  two  stokers'  iron  pokers,  six  feet  in  length,  enabled  him  to 
stir  up  his  fire  without  approaching  it  too  nearly,  or  calling 
upon  a  sers'ant  for  help.  Open  fireplaces  were  all  he  used,  and 
no  furnace  was  permitted  to  poison  the  air  of  his  house.  A 
tin  saucepan,  with  a  handle  several  feet  in  length  and  crooked 
so  as  to  hang  on  to  the  edge  of  the  fender,  allowed  him  to  heat 
the  water  for  shaving  without  burning  his  face.  Everything 
about  him  gave  proof  of  his  independent  spirit  and  his  unwil- 
lingness to  invoke  the  aid  of  others  in  personal  matters.  He 
was  accustomed  to  tie  up  the  articles  of  his  wardrobe  not  in 
immediate  use,  in  brown  paper  packages,  and  store  them  away 
*  Professor  C.  W.  MacCord  in  the  Scientific  American. 


THE  HOME  IN  BEACH  STREET.  317 

in  a  closet  of  his  bedroom.  Once  a  year,  he  would  stand  upon 
a  chair  and  hand  these  packages  solemnly  down  to  his  secre- 
tary, who  in  his  turn  solemnly  rid  them  of  the  twelve  months 
accumulation  of  dust,  and  handed  them  up  again  for  further  re- 
pose upon  the  shelves.  This  appears  to  have  been  the  extent 
of  Ericsson's  concession  to  housekeeping  proprieties.  Summer 
and  winter,  he  wore  vests  and  stocks  of  buff  Marseilles  or  pique; 
this  material  having  once  attracted  his  fancy,  he  had  bought 
one  hundred  and  fifty  yards  of  it  and  used  it  for  these  gar- 
ments during  the  remainder  of  his  life.  When  the  supply  was 
exhausted  and  it  was  found  impossible  to  match  the  material, 
the  well-worn  vests  were  patched  and  repatched  with  remnants 
saved  when  the  cloth  was  cut.  Separated  so  much  from  con- 
tact with  his  fellows,  he  grew  more  and  more  eccentric,  and 
while  he  was  quite  conscious  of  this,  his  joy  w^as  in  his  work 
and  he  did  not  care  to  change.  Those  who  had  business  with 
him  and  who  understood  his  ways,  could  always  gain  access  to 
him,  but  for  visits  of  mere  curiosity  he  had  no  tolerance.  On 
the  recurring  anniversaries  of  his  birth,  toward  the  end  of  his 
life,  congratulations  were  sent  to  him  by  telegram  and  letter 
from  friends  and  admirers,  a  few  of  the  more  venturesome 
calling  to  tender  their  compliments  in  person.  How  such  visi- 
tors were  received  is  indicated  by  this  copy  of  a  memorandum 
given  to  his  secretary  for  his  guidance  on  such  an  occasion. 

July  31,  1884. — Mem.,  Capt.  E.'s  Instructions. 

Tell  the  gentlemen  who  may  do  me  the  honor  to  call,  that  I  positive- 
ly refuse  to  appear,  as  I  am  tired  of  being  described. 

Regarding  my  profession,  I  desire  to  be  useful,  and  love  to  work; 
but  I  desire  that  my  works  should  speak  for  themselves. 

As  to  congratulations,  my  friends  know  that  I  prefer  a  few  friendly 
lines  over  an  autograph. 

I  have  not  time  to  examine  my  correspondence  to-day,  as  I  should 
like  to  send  a  certain  scientific  document  by  Saturday's  mail.* 

*  Ericsson  was  a  constant  contributor  to  the  newspapers — scientific  and 
others;  writing  not  for  pay,  but  because  he  was  interested  in  the  subject  he 
discussed.  He  would  frequently  furnish  not  only  the  article  but  the  illustra- 
tions to  accompany  it.  On  one  occasion  he  sent  an  article  to  a  New  York  daily 
paper.  As  it  did  not  appear  promptly  he  sent  a  copy  to  a  rival  sheet.  The  re- 
sult was  that  two  papers  that  had  a  genius  for  differing  were  for  once  found  in 


318  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

Not  one  of  the  expected  congratulations  would  I  i^ublish. 

You  can  show  the  solar  apparatus  if  you  see  fit.  The  result  of  my 
investigation  is  a  positive  demonstration  that  the  temperature  of  the 
solar  surface  exceeds  three  million  degrees  of  F. 

The  national  melodies,  sung  by  the  Swedish  societies  who 
gathered  in  front  of  his  house  on  his  last  birthday,  touched 
Ericsson  profoundly.  He  did  not  appear  to  acknowledge  the 
courtesy,  it  is  true,  but,  in  the  privacy  of  his  own  room,  he  lis- 
tened intently,  and  his  eyes  filled  with  the  tears  of  tender  recol- 
lection 

"  That  is  not  akin  to  pain, 
And  resembles  sorrow  only, 
As  the  mist  resembles  the  rain." 

If  the  avenues  to  his  heart  were  known  to  but  few,  they  were 
far  from  being  untrodden  ways.  A  Swedish  traveller  who 
called,  at  the  time  of  dedication  of  the  monument  erected  at 
Laugbanshyttan,  to  give  an  account  of  the  celebration  there, 
says  of  his  interview  :  "  After  having  waited  a  few  minutes,  I 
heard  somebody  coming  very  quickly  down  the  stairs,  and  a 
moment  afterward  I  saluted  one  of  the  most  renowned  per- 
sons of  the  century.  I  gave  him  the  views  of  Laugbanshyt- 
tan after  having  delivered  my  message.  This  was  one  of  the 
most  interesting  moments  of  my  journey.  To  see  how  the 
warm-hearted  patriot  was  overcome  with  emotion,  how  he 
for  a  long  time  stood  as  if  rooted  to  the  floor,  and  gazed  upon 
the  pictures  recalling  the  scenes  of  his  childhood,  and  the  hum- 
ble dwelling  where  he  passed  his  youth,  cannot  be  described 
in  words.  At  last  he  said,  '  Yes,  I  know  my  home  very  well,' 
and  at  the  same  time  a  few  tears,  which  surely  came  from  the 
depths  of  his  heart,  appeared  in  his  eyes,  as  he  continued  to 
gaze  upon  the  unpretending  pictures  which  showed  him  how 
his  friends  in  the  old  places  had  done  him  honor." 

"  The  heart  has  its  own  memory  like  the  mind." 

the  most  striking  accord.  Each  printed  on  the  same  day  Ericsson's  article  as 
an  editorial,  and  the  exact  similarity  in  expression  and  opiuiou  was  the  subject 
of  no  small  amusement  to  critical  contemporaries. 


THE  HOME  TN  BEACH  STREET.  319 

Tegnier,  the  poet  of  Yermland,  recalling  the  scenes  of  his 
youth,  said  in  his  old  age  :  "  The  verdure  of  spring,  the  cool 
shade  of  the  wood,  the  refreshing  waves,  the  odor  of  the  pine, 
the  perfume  of  the  flowers,  and  the  sweet  breath  of  the  morn- 
ing air,  all  are  still  fresh  in  remembrance.  The  distractions  of 
town-life,  of  study  among  books  unlimited,  the  dust  of  the 
highways  of  learning,  have  never  obscured  these  recollections, 
and  they  refresh  me  as  do  the  wells  that  spring  out  of  the 
desert  the  thirsty  traveller." 

Among  the  same  associations  John  Ericsson  obtained  his 
deepest  impressions,  and  as  the  sands  of  the  desert  cover  hid- 
den waters,  so  beneath  his  life  of  absorbing  devotion  to  utili- 
tarian pursuits  lay  hidden  the  well-springs  of  sentiment,  hav- 
ing their  origin  in  recollection  of  the  days  when  Olaf  and 
Sophia  Ericsson  gathered  their  little  family  around  them  in 
the  Vermland  forest,  when  all  was  lost  save  love. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

THE  CLOSE   OF  A   USEFUL  LIFE. 

Resolution  to  Die  in  the  Harness. — The  Last  Invention. — Death  of  Cor- 
nelius H.  Delamater. — Its  Effect  upon  Ericsson. — His  End  Ap- 
proaches.— Remarkable  Tenacity  of  Life. — His  Death  upon  the 
Anniversary  of  the  Monitor  and  Merrimac  Contest. — Funeral  Cere- 
monies.— Sweden  Asks  for  the  Remains. — Imposing  Ceremonies 
Attending  Their  Transfer. — Two  Nations  Join  in  Honoring  the 
Dead. — His  Estate,  and  Directions  as  to  its  Disposition. — The 
Dream  of  Piranesi. — Finis. 

IX  1S56  Ericsson  promised  his  Swedish  relatives  and  friends 
that  he  would  return  to  them  when  he  was  eighty  years 
old,  and  dwell  at  his  ease  in  his  native  land.  But  the  usual 
changes  came  with  time.  Those  nearest  and  dearest  to  him 
were  no  longer  with  the  living,  and  the  familiar  places  had  lost 
the  charm  of  familiar  presence.  His  zeal  for  invention  con- 
tinued unabated,  and  when  the  twenty-seven  years  had  passed 
and  he  was  reminded  of  his  promise,  the  attraction  of  work  was 
stronger  than  his  desire  to  visit  Sweden.  "I  propose  to  con- 
tinue at  work,"  he  now  said,  "so  long  as  I  can  stand  at  the 
drawing-board." 

Five  years  more  passed  and  he  was  still  busied  with  his 
project  for  controlling  solar  heat — the  culmination  of  the  stud- 
ies begun  nearly  three  score  years  and  ten  before,  in  Jemtland 
with  his  flame  engine.  In  the  yard  attached  to  his  house  he 
had  set  up  a  large  solar  engine.  Needing  power  to  test  it,  in 
December,  1888,  he  began  work  upon  the  design  for  a  "small 
motor  engine."  To  this  he  devoted  the  last  week  of  the  year, 
and,  as  usual,  he  made  with  his  own  hands  all  the  working 
drawings.  These  went  to  the  shop  and  the  engine  was  re- 
turned completed  by  February  1,  1889.  This  little  engine  was 
John  Ericsson's  last  finished  work.  His  secretary  saw  that  his 
powers  were  waning,  and  urged  him  to  refrain  from  further 

320 


THE   CLOSE   OF   A   USEFUL   LIFE.  331 

exertion,  but  lie  pointed  to  his  new  engine  as  proof  that  there 
was  no  occasion  for  anxiety.  On  February  7th  he  received  a 
great  shock  from  the  announcement  of  the  death  of  Cornelius 
H.  Delamater,  in  the  sixty-eighth  year  of  his  age.  This  event 
sundered  relations  of  business  and  friendship  extending  over 
half  a  century  ;  it  deprived  him  of  the  chief  coadjutor  in  his 
work,  and  it  gave  linpleasant  interpretation  to  his  own  bodily 
symptoms.  Though  these  daily  grew  more  alarming  to  his 
friends,  he  would  not  permit  a  physician  to  be  called ;  when  the 
swelling  of  his  limbs  suggested  dropsy,  he  directed  his  secretaiy 
to  consult  medical  treatises,  and  report  without  asking  medical 
advice.  It  soon  became  apparent  that  there  was  no  evidence 
of  dropsy,  and  the  heart  was  next  held  accountable  for  symp- 
toms only  to  be  explained  on  the  theory  of  approaching  disso- 
lution. "  A  diagram  of  the  pulse  resembled  a  saw  with  every 
sixth  and  tentii  tooth  broken  off,"  as  the  sick  man  described  it. 
In  spite  of  increasing  weakness  lie  stiii  declined  assistance,  and 
cautioned  his  attendants  not  to  speak  of  his  illness.  "  At 
my  age,"  he  said,  "  such  a  report  would  interfere  with  future 
plans,  and  most  likely  with  future  usefulness."  He  was  able  to 
continue  at  work  and  was  in  excellent  spirits.  On  February 
23d  a  change  in  appearance  was  noted,  and  he  complained  of 
increased  exhaustion,  and  of  rest  disturbed  by  the  constant 
occupation  of  his  mind  at  night  with  planning  and  working 
out  new  mechanical  devices. 

The  crisis  approached,  and  from  this  time  the  faithful  sec- 
retary forsook  his  home  in  the  suburbs  of  New  York  and  re- 
mained constantly  upon  the  watch.  The  dying  man  continued 
his  daily  routine,  and  the  early  morning  hours  were  still  devot- 
ed to  severe  physical  exercise,  now  so  much  beyond  his  strength. 
He  showed  unusual  irritability,  though  his  habitual  courtesy  to 
those  about  him  remained  unchanged.  Soon  he  was  forced  to 
ask  for  assistance  in  dressing  and  to  forego  his  laborious  gym- 
nastics ;  fever  and  thirst  increased,  appetite  failed,  and  he 
finally  consented  to  have  a  physician  consulted.  The  doctor, 
when  he  received  the  report  of  his  condition,  insisted  upon  call- 
ing. Though  Ericsson  still  kept  about  the  house,  and  still  took 
his  frequent  naps  upon  tlie  top  of  his  table,  with  his  box  for  a 
pillow,  he  was  already  "two-thirds  dead,"  as  the  doctor  re- 
VoL.  IL— 21 


322  LIFE   OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

ported.  It  was  only  his  indomitable  will  that  survived.  To 
his  failing  sight  fog  seemed  to  fill  the  room,  and  milk  at  a 
temperature  of  175  degrees  could  not  convey  the  sensation  of 
warmth  to  his  dulled  senses.  Yet,  in  spite  of  this,  there  were 
wonderful  flashes  of  the  old  vigor.  His  instructions  concerning 
his  affairs  were  precise  and  emphatic  ;  he  still  retained  interest 
enough  in  the  world  around  him  to  send  for  an  extra,  which  a 
newsboy  cried  under  his  window  on  March  4th,  and  to  read 
President  Harrison's  inaugural  address.  Tired  of  his  enforced 
idleness,  he  suggested  that  the  evenings  "  now  passed  in  look- 
ing at  each  other  be  occupied  with  intellectual  conversation."' 

On  March  5th  came  the  anniversary  of  the  day  on  which 
the  Jtfomtor  received  her  first  sailing  orders.  Ericsson  was 
still  able  to  descend  the  stairs  to  his  meals,  and  enjoyed  his 
food.  He  was  quite  vivacious  and  his  voice  had  the  old  ring 
in  it,  but  he  dozed  through  much  of  the  day,  and  far  into  the 
night,  stretched  upon  the  table  where  a  coverlid  had  been 
spread,  and  a  hard  pillow  substituted  for  the  wooden  box. 
His  secretary  was  greatly  distressed  by  his  painful  moaning, 
but  it  was  not  until  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  March  6th 
that  he  was  able  to  persuade  him,  by  gentle  violence,  to  with- 
draw to  his  bed.  Ericsson  was  resolved  to  fall  with  harness 
on.  His  old  friend  and  physician.  Dr.  Thomas  M.  Markoe, 
had  been  sent  for.  At  11.15  a.m.  he  appeared.  As  he  ap- 
proached the  bedside  of  his  patient,  Mr.  Taylor  said,  "  Cap- 
tain, here  is  Dr.  Markoe  to  see  you."  "  "Who  ?  "  he  asked,  in  a 
loud  tone  ;  "  who  sent  for  him  ?  " 

Taking  the  hand  of  the  dying  man,  Dr.  Markoe  asked  : 
"How  do  you  feel.  Captain  ?  "  A  smile  of  recognition  lighted 
the  wan  face,  and  after  a  pause  Ericsson  said,  in  distinct  tones  : 
"  Markoe,  can  a  man  who  has  Bright's  disease  do  any  more 
work?" 

To  this  the  doctor  answered :  "  Captain,  a  man  who  has 
Bright's  disease  has  no  right  to  do  any  work."  Mr.  Taylor, 
to  whose  memoranda  I  am  indebted  for  these  facts,  says :  "  I 
knew  that  the  death-knell  had  sounded,  for  he  had  told  me 
hundreds  of  times  that  when  he  knew  that  his  usefulness  to 
mankind  was  at  an  end,  he  would  not  make  an  effort  t»  live 
another  minute."     Mr.  Taylor  says  further  ; 


THE   CLOSE   OF   A   USEFUL   LIFE.  323 

"  Dr.  Markoe  sent  a  professional  nurse  at  once  to  relieve  me, 
and  after  this  I  saw  Captain  Ericsson  only  at  intervals.  My 
presence  suggested  to  his  mind  matters  of  business,  and  he 
would  give  me  peremptory  orders,  ending  with  the  command 
to  dress  him  at  once. 

"  At  nine  p.m.,  Wednesday,  March  6th,  I  took  the  house- 
keeper to  his  bedside,  to  bid  him  good-night,  as  she  had  never 
failed  to  do  for  thirty  years,  and  more.  I  imagine  that  blind- 
ness was  coming  on,  as  he  could  not  see  her  uplifted  hand.  He 
gently  squeezed  her  fingers  and  said,  '  God  bless  you,  my 
child  ! ' 

"  Thursday,  March  7th,  Dr.  Boullee  reports  that  when  he 
felt  it  to  be  his  duty  to  inform  the  Captain  of  his  very  preca- 
rious condition,  he  merely  remarked,  '  Then  give  me  rest.' 

"  At  11.30  P.M.  I  arranged  his  pillows  and  spoke  to  him. 
He  gazed  into  my  face,  and  with  a  smile  said  : 

"  '  I  am  resting.  This  rest  is  magnificent ;  more  beautiful 
than  words  can  tell ! ' 

"  I  am  positive  that  he  was  absolutely  without  pain,  and 
perfectly  conscious  when  I  left,  a  minute  later.  At  12.30  a.m. 
I  was  called  to  see  him  breathe  his  last,  and  at  12.39  a.m.,  with 
just  three  gentle  movements  of  the  lips,  the  noble  friend,  the 
great  and  good  man,  ended  his  life." 

Thus,  in  the  first  liour  of  the  morning  of  March  8,  1889 — 
the  anniversary  of  the  event  giving  chief  significance  to  his 
name — John  Ericsson  passed  away.  He  had  so  separated  him- 
self from  his  fellows,  and  so  far  outlived  the  era  of  his  best 
known  works,  that  few  realized  the  historical  significance  of 
his  death  until  they  read  the  record  of  his  achievements  in  the 
biographical  notices  filling  the  papers.  The  Ericsson  of  the 
Rainliill  contest,  of  the  Princeton^  of  the  caloric  engine  and 
the  caloric  ship,  was  forgotten  ;  the  Ericsson  of  the  Monitor 
was  but  vaguely  associated  with  a  living  presence,  and  the  solar 
engine  brought  to  most  men's  minds  only  the  dim  suggestion 
of  an  inventor's  dream.  Stories  of  the  hermit  life  in  Beach 
Street  had  occasionally  floated  upon  the  air,  as  the  fancies  of 
reporters  turned  that  way,  but  they  had  made  no  permanent 
lodgement  in  men's  minds. 

On  the  day  of  his  funeral,  March  11, 1889,  the  pall-bearers, 


334  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

thirty-two  in  number  ;  his  personal  friends,  and  the  representa- 
tives of  various  societies,  Swedish  and  others,  gathered  at  the 
desolate  house  in  Beach  Street.  From  there  they  proceeded 
in  carriages,  and  without  ceremony,  to  Trinity  Church,  in  lower 
Broadway,  where  the  rector,  Rev.  Morgan  Dix,  D.D.,  and  his 
assistants  read  tlie  Burial  Service,  and  the  fine  choir  sang  Cardi- 
nal Newman's  noble  hymn — "  Lead,  kindly  light."  On  the 
coffin,  with  other  tributes,  lay  two  beautiful  palm  leaves  tied 
with  a  broad  black  ribbon  and  bearing  this  inscription,  Ilun- 
teri  Regiment  N^o.  23,  Royal  Swedish  Army.  Xo  offering 
could  have  been  more  grateful,  for  with  the  service  thus  signi- 
fied Ericsson's  dearest  recollections  were  associated.  However 
other  titles  might  accumulate  upon  him,  he  would  insist  upon 
but  one,  and  that  was  "Captain''  Ericsson,  late  of  the  23d 
Fiilt  Ziigar. 

In  Second  Street,  on  the  east  side  of  Xew  York  City,  is  lo- 
cated the  "Marble  Cemetery,"  dating  back  to  the  time  of  James 
Monroe,  fifth  President  of  the  United  States,  who  was  buried 
there  in  1831.  Then  in  the  suburbs,  it  was  at  the  time  of 
Ericsson's  death  surrounded  by  a  population  similar  to  that  in 
the  vicinity  of  his  Beach  Street  house.  To  this  cemetery  his 
body  was  carried  and  placed  in  a  receiving  vault  to  await  a 
decision  as  to  its  final  resting-place.  A  procession  accompa- 
nied it,  consisting  only  of  the  few  carriages  containing  those 
connected  with  the  dead  by  personal  association,  and  there  was 
nothing  in  the  nature  of  a  public  funeral.  As  the  body  was 
deposited  in  the  vault,  a  funeral  hymn  was  sung  by  a  Swedish 
glee  club,  and  the  Odd  Fellows  of  Ericsson's  Lodge,  the  Ama- 
ranthus,  performed  their  simple  rites,  which  seemed  more  in 
consonance  with  the  character  of  the  departed  than  did  the  more 
elaborate  ritual  of  the  Church.  Following  Ericsson's  death, 
came  various  suggestions  as  to  the  proper  place  for  his  final  in- 
terment, and  among  these  was  the  proposition  to  place  his  re- 
mains in  the  Livingston  Vault  of  Trinity  Church-yard,  beside 
those  of  Robert  Fulton.  The  Legislature  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  on  May  8,  1889,  passed  an  act  authorizing  the  City  of 
Kew  York  to  expend  $10,000  in  erecting  a  monument  to  Erics- 
son in  one  of  the  public  parks.  Two  bills,  one  appropriating 
$50,000  and  the  other  §30,000,  for  another  monument,  were 


THE   CLOSE   OF   A   USEFUL   LIFE.  326 

introduced  into  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  American 
Congress,  and  coinmitted  to  the  slow  processes  of  Federal  leg- 
islation. A  month  after  Ericsson's  burial,  this  communication 
was  sent  to  the  Department  of  State  from  the  Legation  of  the 
United  States  at  Stockholm  : 

Legation  of  the  United  States,  ) 
Stockholm,  April  10,  1889.      \ 
Hon.  James  G.  Blaine,  Secretakx  of  State, 
Washington,  D.  C. 
SiK  :  Oa  yesterday  I  had  the  honor  to  transmit  to  you  a  cablegram 
in  the  following  words  :  "  Blaine,  Washington  :  Sweden  would  regard 
with  extreme  favor  Ericsson's  body  sent  home  by  man-of-war. 

"  Magee." 

This  cablegram  was  the  result  of  a  conversation  with  the  Under  Sec- 
retary of  State  for  the  Eoyal  United  Kingdoms  of  Sweden  and  Norway, 
who  asked  me  to  forward  it  on  request  of  Count  Ehrensvard,  Minister 
of  Foreign  Affairs.  Unquestionably  the  Government,  as  well  as  the 
people,  of  Sweden  would  regard  such  an  action  on  the  part  of  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  as  highly  complimentary  and  satisfactory. 
I  have  made  no  expression  upon  the  subject,  and  report  simply  my 
reason  for  forwarding  the  cablegram.  If  such  action  is  taken  I  would 
suggest  it  be  in  June,  as  navigation  will  hardly  be  opened  here  before 
the  latter  part  of  May.  Perhaps  a  formal  reply  should  be  made  to  the 
Department  here  as  to  the  determination  in  the  matter  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States.     Awaiting  the  same,  I  have  the  honor,  etc. 

EuEUS  Magee. 

No  action  was  taken  upon  this  suggestion  for  eight  months ; 
then  this  letter  was  sent  to  the  Navy  Department  by  the  De- 
partment of  State : 

Department  of  State,         ) 
Washington,  December  14,  1889.  ) 

The  Honorable,  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

Sir  :  It  having  been  intimated  to  this  Government  that  the  Govern- 
ment of  Sweden  would  regard  it  as  a  graceful  act  if  the  remains  of  the 
late  Captain  John  Ericsson  should  be  conveyed  to  his  native  country  on 
board  of  a  United  States  vessel  of  war,  I  have  the  honor  to  suggest  the 
matter  for  your  consideration  and  action,  if  deemed  practicable.  I  have 
the  honor  to  be,  sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

James  G.  Blaine. 

Finally,  in  June,  1890,  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  wrote  to 
the  executors  of  the  Ericsson  estate,  informing  them  that  the 


326  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

U.  S.  S.  Essex  was  at  their  service  for  carrying  out  the  ex- 
pressed wish  of  the  Swedish  Government.  The  Essex  was  one 
of  the  old  and  inferior  vessels  of  the  Navy,  and  it  was  soon 
made  apparent  that  her  employment  on  such  duty  would  not 
satisfy  public  sentiment.  Accordingly,  the  Navy  Department 
reversed  its  decision  and  substituted  for  the  Essex  one  of  the 
vessels  of  the  "  new  navy." 

The  Baltimore,  a  fine  cruiser  under  the  command  of  Captalu 
"W.  S.  Schley,  U.S.X.,  whose  rescue  of  the  Greely  party  of 
Arctic  explorers  had  made  his  name  favorably  known  through- 
out the  country,  was  the  vessel  finally  chosen.  And  this  order 
was  issued  from  the  Xavy  Department : 

Navy  Departmekt, 
Washtngton,  Aagnst  2,  1890, 
Keab- Admiral  D.  L.  Braixe, 

U.  S.  Navy,  Command ast,  Navy  Yard,  Nfw  York. 

Sir  :  The  Department  has  fixed  the  afternoon  of  Saturday,  August 
23d,  as  the  time  for  the  embarkation  of  the  remains  of  the  late  Captain 
John  Ericsson  for  transportation  to  his  native  country,  on  board  the 
United  States  ship  Baltimore,  and  it  entrusts  to  you  the  direction  of  all 
the  aiTangements  connected  with  the  ceremony. 

The  Department  has  assumed  this  duty  in  response  to  an  intimation 
conveyed  by  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  of  Sweden  and  Norway, 
through  the  United  States  Minister  at  Stockholm,  to  the  Department 
of  State,  that  it  would  be  regarded  by  the  Government  and  people  of 
Sweden  with  peculiar  satisfaction. 

Apart  from  the  desire  thus  expressed,  it  is  in  the  highest  degree  ap- 
propriate that  the  United  States,  through  its  Navy,  should  pay  this  final 
tribute  to  the  memory  of  the  great  Swedish  inventor.  As  the  most  fa- 
mous representative  of  the  Scandinavian  race  in  America,  his  name 
stands  for  that  of  a  kindred  people,  who  have  given  to  this  country  a 
large  and  highly  valued  element  among  its  adopted  citizens.  An  oflScer 
of  the  Swedish  army  in  early  life,  Ericsson  closed  his  career  with  the 
illustrious  distinction  of  being  among  the  foremost  of  American  me- 
chanics.* Of  the  innumerable  applications  of  mechanical  art  that  are 
the  fmit  of  his  genius,  many  so  long  ago  passed  into  general  use  that 
they  have  ceased  to  be  associated  popularly  with  his  name ;  but  his 
achievements  in  the  field  of  naval  science  will  remain  forever  a  monu- 
ment to  his  memory.  To  the  United  States  Navy  he  gave  the  first 
Monitor,  and  in  her  he  gave  to  all  the  navies  of  the  world  the  germ  of 
the  modern  battle-ship. 

For  these  reasons,  it  is  the  Department's  desire  to  surround  the  em- 

*  Bead  in  connection  with  this  what  is  said  on  page  228,  Vol  I. 


THE   CLOSE   OF   A   USEFUL   LIFE.  327 

barkation  with  every  circumstance  that  can  invest  it  with  dignity  and 
solemnity.  All  the  vessels  of  war  that  may  be  available  will  be  assem- 
bled at  New  York  and  will  be  directed  to  unite  with  you  in  paying  to 
the  deceased  the  honors  befitting  his  rank  and  his  distinguished  name. 
The  details  will  be  regulated  by  you  in  consultation  with  the  represent- 
atives of  Captain  Ericsson,  and  the  officers  of  the  association  desiring 
to  take  part  in  the  ceremony.  The  anchorage  ground  near  the  Statue 
of  Liberty  is  designated  as  the  place  where  the  Baltimore  will  receive 
the  remains,  and  the  other  vessels  of  war  will  be  anchored  in  her  vici- 
nity. The  marines  from  the  ships  and  the  station  will  form  the  guard 
CI  honor  to  escort  the  body  from  its  present  resting-place  to  the  Bat- 
teiy.  It  will  there  be  embarked  on  board  the  Nina  and  conveyed  to 
the  Baltiviore,  under  the  escort  of  all  the  available  steam  launches  and 
pulling  boats  of  the  squadron,  formed  in  double  column,  the  steam 
launches  in-eceding  the  Nina. 

The  Dei^artment  has  extended  to  the  Minister  of  Sweden  and  Nor- 
way at  this  Capital  an  invitation  to  be  present,  which  will  include  the 
members  of  his  legation  and  such  officers  of  the  consular  service  of 
Sweden  in  this  country  as  he  may  designate.  Letters  have  also  been 
sent  to  the  executors  of  the  deceased,  and  to  Rear  Admiral  John  L. 
Worden,  U.  S.  Navy,  the  veteran  captain  of  the  Monitor,  inviting  them  to 
take  part  in  the  ceremonies,  dnd  to  accompany  the  remains  to  the  Balti- 
more. It  is  the  intention  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  to  be  present. 
By  the  publication  of  this  letter,  the  Department  invites  all  associa- 
tions composed  of  the  friends,  companions,  or  former  countrymen  of 
Captain  Ericsson,  to  take  part  in  the  procession  to  the  Battery,  and  to 
report  to  you  through  their  representatives  for  instruction  as  to  their 
position  in  the  line  and  other  details  of  the  ceremony. 

The  flag  officers  who  may  be  in  New  York  will  be  directed  to  co- 
operate with  and  assist  you  in  carrying  out  this  programme,  the  details 
of  which  you  are  authorized  to  modify  as  circumstances  may  require. 
Very  respectfully, 

James  E.  Solet, 
Acting  Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

On  August  18th  the  following  order  was  issued  by  authority 
of  the  President  of  the  United  States : 

Navy  Department,  Washington,  August  18, 1890. 
The  Commandant  of  the  Navy  Yard,  New  York  : 

Sir  :  Upon  the  occasion  of  the  embarkation  of  the  remain 
of  Captain  Ericsson,  it  is  the  desire  of  the  President  to  give 
solemn    expression    to  the  cordial  and  fraternal  feeling  that 
unites  us  with  a  kindred  people,  the  parent  source  of  a  large 


328  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

body  of  our  most  valued  citizens,  of  whom  the  late  inventor, 
a  Scandinavian  by  birth,  and  an  American  by  adoption,  was 
the  most  illustrious  example. 

In  recognition  of  this  feeling  and  of  the  debt  we  owe  to 
Sweden  for  the  gift  of  Ericsson,  whose  genius  rendered  us  the 
highest  service  in  a  moment  of  grave  peril  and  anxiety,  it  is 
directed  that  at  this  other  moment,  when  we  give  back  his 
body  to  his  native  country,  the  flag  of  Sweden  shall  be  saluted 
by  the  squadron. 

The  Department  therefore  issues  the  following  instruc- 
tions : 

The  colors  of  the  squadron  will  be  at  half-mast  during  the 
embarkation. 

Minute  guns  will  be  fired  from  the  monitor  Santucket 
during  the  passage  of  the  body  from  the  shore  to  the  Balti' 
more. 

As  the  Baltimore  gets  under  way  and  passes  the  vessels  of 
the  squadron,  each  vessel  will  masthead  her  colors,  display  the 
Swedish  ensign,  and  fire  a  national  salute  of  twenty-one  guns. 
The  Baltimore  will  immediately  proceed  to  sea. 

By  command  of  the  President : 

J.  Russell  Solet, 
Acting  Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

Under  these  orders,  addressed  to  the  Commandant  of  the 
Brooklyn  Kavy  Yard,  Rear-Admiral  David  L.  Braine,  an  ap- 
propriate ceremonial  was  arranged,  and  on  Saturday,  August 
23,  1890,  the  remains  of  John  Ericsson  were  removed  from  the 
receiving  vault  in  the  Second  Street  cemetery,  and  placed  on 
board  the  Baltimore  for  transportation  to  Sweden.  Again 
the  Swedish  singing  societies  gathered  in  the  little  cemetery 
around  the  coffin  of  their  dead  countryman,  and  sang  Otto 
Lindblad's  "  Stridsbon,"  or  battle  prayer  of  Sweden.  Then 
in  solemn  procession,  through  streets  lined  with  thronging  thou- 
sands of  curious  sight-seers,  the  remains  of  Sweden's  honored 
son  were  transported  to  the  tug  at  the  Battery  for  transfer  to 
the  noble  war  ship  waiting  in  the  harbor,  where  they  were 
placed  under  the  protection  of  a  guard  of  lionor  on  a  catafalque 
upon  the  spar-deck.     In  committing  the  remains  to  the  charge 


THE   CLOSE   OF   A    USEFUL   LIFE.  329 

of  the  Commander  of  the  national  vessel  assigned  to  the  duty 
of  conveying  them  across  the  ocean,  Mr.  George  H.  Robinson, 
one  of  the  executors  of  Ericsson's  estate,  and  a  son-in-law  and 
partner  of  Mr.  Delamater,  spoke  thus  appropriately  : 

Captain  Schley  :  In  the  nation's  tribute  to  our  illustrious  dead  the 
simple  duty  falls  to  us  to  yield  to  the  claims  of  his  mother-countiy, 
that  she  may  again  receive  her  sou.  We  send  him  back  crowned  with 
honor ;  proud  of  the  life  of  fifty  yeai-s  he  devoted  to  this  nation,  and 
with  gratitude  for  the  gifts  he  gave  to  us. 

"Was  he  a  dreamer  ?  Yes.  He  dreamed  of  the  practical  application  of 
screw  propulsion,  and  the  commerce  of  the  world  was  revolutionized. 
He  dreamed  of  making  naval  warfare  more  terrible,  and  the  Monitor  was 
built.  After  one  trial,  at  a  most  critical  period  of  this  nation's  history, 
where  were  the  navies  of  the  world?  The  London  Times  said  :  "Eng- 
land has  no  navy."  Again  he  dreamed,  and  the  Destroyer,  with  its  sub- 
marine gun,  was  born.  He  dreamed  of  hot  air,  and  behold  ten  thou- 
sand caloric  engines.  He  dreamed  of  the  sun's  rays  in  sandy  deserts, 
where  water  was  hard  to  get,  and  the  solar  engine  came ;  and  so  he 
dreamed  and  worked  for  seventy  years. 

He  bore  the  strain  of  unremitting  toil,  and  at  the  end  his  last  words 
were  :   "  This  is  rest."     Well  earned,  benefactor  of  the  world  ! 

To  you,  Captain  Schley,  we  commit  these  remains.  The  honorable 
duty  is  yours.  Deliver  them  to  his  native  country.  We  keep  his 
memory  here. 

Replying,  Captain  Schley  said : 


To  THE  ExEcrroRs  of  the  John  Ebicsson  Estate. 

GENTTiK^rRN :  The  officers  and  men  of  this  splendid  cruiser  regard 
their  assignment,  by  the  honorable  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  to  the  sacred 
duty  of  conveying  these  honored  remains  of  the  late  John  Ericsson  to 
their  home  in  Sweden  with  peculiar  pride  and  pleasure.  It  will  be 
their  bounden  duty  to  watch  over  and  guard  them  with  an  interest  that 
is  increased  by  the  fame  of  this  great  man,  whose  part  dui-ing  the  most 
important  epoch  in  our  history  is  so  widely  understood  and  so  justly 
appreciated  by  our  people.  Ericsson's  genius  created  a  new  instrument 
of  war,  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  the  latest  modern  battle-ships  are 
but  modifications  in  one  form  or  another  of  his  original  idea  as  per- 
fected in  the  little  Monitor.  The  Navy  which  we  represent  will  be 
justly  proud  that  their  brothers  in  arms  have  been  selected  to  perform 
this  last  sacred  duty.  And  you  need  no  assurance  from  me  that  this 
mission  will  be  dutifully  and  lovingly  performed. 


330  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

The  day  was  a  beautiful  one,  and  everything  conspired  to 
give  solemnity  and  effect  to  the  ceremonial :  the  buildings  ap- 
propriately draped  ;  the  flags  at  half -mast,  Sweden's  standard  of 
blue  and  orange  mingling  with  the  stars  and  stripes ;  the  fine 
naval  display  upon  the  water,  and  the  salute  from  the  forts  in 
the  harbor  ;  and  the  double  line  of  saluting  war-ships  between 
which  the  Baltimore  proceeded  to  sea,  flying  at  the  fore  the 
despatch-flag  to  proclaim  that  she  was  upon  the  king's  business 
and  must  not  be  halted  or  interfered  with  on  her  journey.* 
What  man  has  been  more  highly  honored  in  American  history? 
"What  other  man  has  better  deserved  such  honors  ? 

After  a  prosperous  voyage  of  nineteen  days,  the  Baltimore 
arrived  at  Stockholm  and  transferred  her  sacred  charge,  on 
September  14th,  to  the  custody  of  the  Swedish  Government. 
The  vessel  reached  the  Swedish  capital  on  Friday,  having  been 
detained  somewhat  by  foggy  weather,  and  the  ceremony  of 
transferring  the  remains  was  postponed  until  the  Sunday  fol- 
lowing, September  14,  1890.  Three  officers  of  the  Swedish 
Navy  and  four  nephews  of  the  deceased  had  been  appointed  a 
committee  of  reception.  They  proceeded  to  the  Baltimore. 
Captain  Schley  delivered  the  body  to  the  Minister  of  the  Unit- 
ed States  to  Sweden,  the  lion.  "W.  X.  Thomas,  Jr.,  and  he  in 
turn  consigned  it  to  Admiral  Peyron. 

"  I  transfer  these  honored  ashes  with  all  reverence,"  said 
Mr.  Thomas,  in  his  brief  address,  "for  well  I  know  how  grand- 
ly the  hand,  that  now  lies  cold  and  still  within  this  casket,  has 
wrought  for  America  and  for  humanity.  At  a  critical  moment 
in  the  history  of  the  United  States,  John  Ericsson,  by  the  crea- 
tion of  his  genius,  rendered  illustrious  service  to  his  adopted 
country,  and  saved  her  from  great  peril.  And  the  Republic  is 
not  ungrateful.  Lovingly  as  Agrippina  bore  home  to  Rome 
the  ashes  of  Germanicus,  so  tenderly  and  honorably  America 
brings  back  the  body  of  Ericsson,  that  the  land  which  was  his 

*  The  despatch-flag  is  a  white  square  flag  with  five  blue  crosses.  Hoisted 
forward,  tliis  flag  denotes  important  and  urgent  special  service,  which  must 
not  be  interfered  with  by  any  officer  junior  to  the  one  by  whom  the  vessel 
was  despatched  ;  in  this  case  the  supreme  head  of  the  Xavy,  the  President  of 
the  United  States.  See  Preble's  History  of  the  Flag  of  the  United  States,  p. 
675. 


THE  CLOSE  OF   A   USEFUL  LIFE.  331 

cradle  may  also  be  his  grave.  The  body  of  Ericsson  we  restore 
to  you,  but  his  memory  we  shall  ever  retain  in  sacred  keep- 
ing ;  or  rather  we  will  share  it  with  you,  and  with  the  whole 
world." 

Sailors  belonging  to  the  American  man-of-war  carried  it  on 
board  a  steam  barge  commanded  by  a  captain  in  the  Swed- 
ish Navy,  and  this  was  followed  to  the  shore  by  a  procession 
of  boats,  the  vessels  in  the  harbor  flying  their  flags  at  half- 
mast,  and  the  Baltimore  and  the  forts  firing  minute-guns.  At 
the  landing,  the  Governor  of  Stockholm  received  the  body,  and 
it  was  borne  by  the  American  sailors  to  a  pavilion  ;  the  troops 
paraded  as  an  escort,  presenting  arms,  and  the  bells  tolled  sol- 
emnly. At  the  railway  station  a  train  was  in  waiting  to  con- 
vey the  body  to  its  final  resting-place  at  Filipstad.  After  a 
simple  service,  consisting  of  the  singing  of  Swedish  hymns  and 
the  recital  of  a  poem,  the  hearse  proceeded  to  the  station,  fol- 
lowed by  an  escort,  including  the  representatives  of  the  King, 
the  Crown  Prince,  and  the  Government ;  the  American  Minis- 
ters to  Sweden  and  to  Denmark  ;  the  ofificers  of  the  Baltimore^ 
and  the  municipal  authorities  of  Stockholm.  The  solemn  dig- 
nity of  the  ceremonial  made  a  profound  impression,  as  had  the 
similar  ceremonial  in  !N^ew  York.  Through  double  ranks  of 
Swedes,  standing  reverently  with  uncovered  heads,  the  funeral 
cortege  proceeded  to  the  cars  waiting  to  convey  them  over  the 
railroad  Nils  Ericsson  had  built,  and  Iljalmar  Elworth  super- 
intended, to  their  beautiful  resting-place  among  the  Vermland 
hills. 

The  funeral  train  was  received  along  the  route  from  Stock- 
holm to  Filipstad  with  numerous  manifestations  of  sorrow  and 
respect,  for  Ericsson  was  remembered  there,  not  only  as  the 
great  engineer,  but  as  one  who  had  let  the  cry  of  the  poor  come 
unto  him,  and  whose  heart  was  always  open  to  the  humble 
classes  who  form  the  great  body  of  every  community.  Kings 
might  honor  him,  but  the  common  people  loved  him  as  a  friend 
and  brother.  Arrived  at  Filipstad  in  Yerniland,  the  body 
was  borne  by  twelve  miners  into  a  church,  where  the  Lutheran 
services  for  the  dead  were  performed,  and  on  the  morning  of 
September  15, 1890,  the  coffin  was  deposited  in  its  final  resting- 
place — a  chapel  especially  prepared  for  its  reception  in  the 


332  LIFE  OF  JOHN  ERICSSON. 

adjoining  cemetery,  the  finest  in  Sweden.  The  honors  accord- 
ed by  the  Government  of  the  United  States  to  their  dead  won  the 
hearts  of  the  Swedes,  and,  as  the  representatives  of  the  United 
States,  the  officers  of  the  Baltimore  were  received  with  the  most 
distinguished  courtesy,  the  audience  rising  en  masse  as  they  ap- 
peared at  the  opera,  and  the  king  giving  a  dinner  in  their  honor. 
Few  men  of  his  profession  have  had  a  greater  opportunity 
than  John  Ericsson  for  acquiring  wealth  as  well  as  fame,  but  his 
indifference  to  pecuniary  considerations  prevented  his  advanc- 
ing on  the  road  to  opulence  beyond  the  stage  of  comfortable 
independence.  In  a  letter  written  November  7,  1884,  he  said  : 
''  They  imagine  in  Sweden  that  I  now  possess  a  large  fortune, 
not  considering  what  it  has  cost  me  to  be  useful  to  my  fellow- 
men,  especially  my  native  country,  for  which  I  liave  worked 
out  a  complete  system  of  defence.  They  do  not  know  that  for 
nearly  twenty  years  (during  which  time  I  have  spent  a  million 
crowns),  I  have  not  worked  for  money.  They  know  that  dur- 
ing these  years  I  have  produced  various  machines  that  now  pay 
well,  but  they  do  not  know  that  I  have  resigned  these  inven- 
tions to  certain  mechanical  manufacturers  who  most  liberally 
consented  to  construct  experimental  machines  for  me  at  a  time 
when  I  was  not  able  to  pay  for  the  work.''  The  fortune 
which  he  estimated  at  one  time  at  nearly  ^300,000,  liad  greatly 
diminished  at  the  time  of  his  death,  and  the  inventory  showed 
a  total  valuation  of  only  $100,000,  including  $72,715.42  for 
his  personal  property,  the  house  in  Beach  Street,  which  was 
sold  for  $19,000,  and  a  house  in  Abingdon  Square.  His  large 
investment  in  the  Destroyer  was  dependent  upon  Government 
action  for  possible  value,  and  the  still  standing  Princeton  claim 
was  an  even  more  uncertain  asset.  Both  were  required  to 
make  good  the  bequests  of  his  will,  amounting  altogether  to 
$147,000,  distributed  as  follows  : 

To  the  assistants  in  his  oflSce $52,000 

And  twenty  per  cent,  of  certain  recent  inventions. 

To  female  dependents   45,000 

To  his  friends  Von  Rosen  and  Adlersparre 15,000 

To  the  widow  of  his  son  Hjalmar 15,000 

To  the  children  of  his  sister 20,000 

To  his  nephews  and  nieces  the  residue  of  his  property. 


THE  CLOSE  OF   A  USEFUL  LIFE.  333 

This  is  the  text  of  his  will,  which  makes  characteristic  dis- 
position of  his  shrunken  estate  : 

I,  John  Ehiosson,  Civil  Engineer,  of  the  City  of  New  York,  being  in 
good  health  and  sound  mind,  do  hereby  make,  publish,  and  declare  this 
my  last  will  and  testament,  hereby  revoking  any  and  all  other  will  or 
wills  heretofore  executed  by  me. 

Item  I.  I  give  and  bequeath  to  the  six  children  of  my  deceased 
sister,  Anna  Carolina  Odhner,  Christina  Sophia,  Carolina  Gabriella,  In- 
geborg  Wilhelmina,  John  Olof  Emanuel,  Class  Theodor,  and  Anna  Ma- 
thilda, twenty  thousand  dollars,  to  be  divided  equally  among  them. 
And  in  the  event  of  any  one  or  more  of  them  dying  before  the  said  lega- 
cy is  paid,  then  and  in  that  event,  the  share  that  would  have  been  re- 
ceived by  such  deceased  if  living,  shall  be  paid  to  the  heirs  of  said 
deceased  in  equal  portions. 

Item  II.  I  give  and  bequeath  to  Hjalmar  Elworth,  Superintendent 
of  the  Swedish  State  Eailroad,  fifteen  thousand  dollars  ;  and  in  the 
event  that  the  said  legatee  shall  not  be  living  at  the  time  of  my  death, 
then  and  in  that  event,  the  said  legacy  shall  be  paid  to  the  widow  of 
said  Hjalmar  Ellworth  if  she  shall  be  living.  If  not  living,  then  and  in 
that  event  said  legacy  shall  be  paid  to  her  heirs. 

Item  in.  I  give  and  bequeath  to  Commodore  Axel  Adlersparre,  re- 
siding at  Stockholm,  in  Sweden,  five  thousand  dollars  ;  and  in  the  event 
that  he  shall  not  be  living  at  the  time  of  my  death,  then  and  in  that 
event,  the  said  legacy  shall  be  paid  to  the  lawful  heirs  of  the  said  Axel 
Adlersparre  in  equal  portions,  share  and  share  alike. 

Item  IV.  I  give  and  bequeath  to  the  wife  of  Commodore  Axel  Ad- 
lersparre, five  thousand  dollars  ;  and  in  the  event  that  she  shall  not  be 
living  at  the  time  of  my  death,  then  and  in  that  event,  the  said  legacy 
shall  be  paid  to  the  lawful  heirs  of  the  said  wife  of  Commodore  Axel 
Adlersparre. 

Item  V.  I  give  and  bequeath  to  Count  Adolph  Eugene  Von  Rosen, 
of  Stockholm,  Sweden,  five  thousand  dollars. 

Item  VI.  I  give  and  bequeath  to  Ann  Cassidy,  my  housekeeper, 
fifteen  hundred  dollars. 

Item  VII.  I  give  and  bequeath  to  Samuel  W,  Taylor,  one  of  my 
assistants,  five  thousand  dollars  ;  and  in  the  event  that  he  shall  not  be 
living  at  the  time  of  my  death,  then  and  in  that  event,  the  said  legacy 
shall  be  paid  to  the  lawful  heirs  of  the  said  Taylor  in  equal  portions, 
share  and  share  alike. 

Item  Vin.  I  give  and  bequeath  to  Valdemar  Frederick  Lassoe, 
one  of  my  assistants,  five  thousand  dollars  ;  and  in  the  event  that  he 
shall  not  be  living  at  the  time  of  my  death,  then  and  in  that  event,  the 
said  legacy  shall  be  paid  to  the  lawful  heirs  of  the  said  Lassoe  in  equal 
portions,  share  and  share  alike. 


334  LIFE   OF   JOHN    ERICSSON". 

Item  IX.  I  give  and  bequeath  to  Charles  William  Maccord,  Pro- 
fessor in  the  Stevens  Institute,  two  thousand  dollars ;  and  in  the  event 
that  he  shall  not  be  living  at  the  time  of  mv  death,  then  and  in  that 
event,  the  said  legacy  shall  be  paid  to  the  lawful  heirs  of  the  said  Mao 
cord  in  equal  portions,  share  and  shaie  alike. 

Item  X.  I  give  and  bequeath  to  Miss  Sarah  Thorn,  residing  at  No. 
5  Abingdon  Square,  in  the  City  of  New  York,  fifteen  hundred  dollars. 

Item  XI.  I  give  and  bequeath  to  Miss  Mary  Austin,  residing  at  No. 
414  East  Thirty-second  Street,  in  the  City  of  New  York,  five  hundred 
dollars. 

Item  XII.  I  give  and  bequeath  to  Miss  Sarah  Thorn,  for  and  dur- 
ing her  life,  all  that  house  and  lot  now  occupied  by  her,  and  known  as 
No.  5  Abingdon  Square,  in  the  City  of  New  York. 

Item  XIII.  I  give  and  devise  in  trust  to  my  executors  and  trustees 
hereinafter  named,  seventeen  thousand  dollars,  to  be  separated  and  set 
apart  for  the  following  purposes  :  To  invest  the  same  in  good  securities, 
and  to  pay  the  interest  and  dividends  received  thereon  to  Ann  Cassidy 
during  her  natural  life  ;  the  payments  to  her  to  be  made  monthly,  and 
as  nearly  as  possible  the  average  one-twelfth  part  of  the  yearly  interest 
or  dividends  of  said  sum  invested. 

Item  XIV.  I  give  and  devise  in  trust  to  my  executors  and  trustees 
hereinafter  mentioned,  seventeen  thousand  dollars,  to  be  separated  and 
set  apart  from  the  rest  of  my  estate  for  the  following  purposes  :  To  in- 
vest the  same  in  good  securities,  and  to  pay  the  interest  and  dividends 
received  thereon  to  Miss  Sarah  Thorn,  of  No.  5  Abingdon  Square,  in 
the  City  of  New  York,  during  her  natural  life  ;  the  payments  to  her  to 
be  made  monthly,  and  as  nearly  as  possible  the  average  one-twelfth 
part  of  the  yearly  interest  or  dividends  of  said  sum  invested. 

Item  XV.  I  give  and  devise  to  my  executors  and  trustees  herein- 
after named,  seven  thousand  five  hundred  dollars,  to  be  separated  and 
set  apart  from  the  rest  of  my  estate  for  the  following  purposes  :  To  in- 
vest the  same  in  good  securities,  and  to  pay  the  interest  and  dividends 
received  thereon  to  Miss  Mary  Austin,  of  the  City  of  New  York,  during 
her  natural  life  ;  the  payments  to  her  to  be  made  monthly,  and  as  near- 
ly as  possible  the  average  one- twelfth  part  of  the  yearly  interest  or  divi- 
dends of  said  sum  invested. 

Item  XVI.  I  give  and  devise  in  trust  to  my  executors  and  trustees 
hereinafter  mentioned,  twenty  thousand  dollars,  to  be  separated  and  set 
apart  from  the  rest  of  my  estate  for  the  following  purposes  :  To  invest 
the  same  in  good  securities,  and  to  pay  the  interest  and  dividends  re- 
ceived thereon  to  Samuel  W.  Taylor,  or  his  present  wife,  during  their 
joint  lives  ;  and  upon  the  death  of  the  last  survivor  I  direct  my  execu- 
tors and  trustees  to  pay  the  said  principal  sum  to  the  children  of  said 
Taylor  in  equal  portions,  share  and  share  alike. 

Item  XVII  I  give  and  devise  in  trust  to  my  executors  and  trustees 
hereinafter  named,  twenty  thousand  dollars,  to  be  separated  and  set 


THE  CLOSE  OP  A  USEFUL  LIFE.  335 

apart  from  the  rest  of  my  estate  for  the  following  purposes  :  To  invest 
the  same  in  good  securities,  and  to  pay  the  interest  and  dividends  re- 
ceived thereon  to  Valdemar  Frederick  Lassue  and  his  present  wife, 
quarterly  during  their  joint  lives  ;  and  upon  the  death  of  the  last  sur- 
vivor I  direct  my  executors  and  trustees  to  pay  the  said  principal  sum  to 
the  children  of  the  siud  Lasscie  in  equal  portions,  share  and  share  alike. 

Item  XVIII.  All  the  remainder  of  my  estate,  both  real  and  personal, 
I  hereby  give  and  bequeath  to  the  children  of  my  deceased  sister  Anna 
Carolina  Odhner,  and  to  Hjalmar  Ellworth,  in  equal  portions,  share  and 
share  alike.  And  in  the  event  of  any  one  or  more  of  them  dying  before 
the  said  legacy  is  distributed,  then  and  in  that  event,  the  share  that  would 
have  been  received  by  such  deceased  person  or  persons,  if  living,  shall  be 
paid  to  the  heirs  of  said  deceased  person  or  persons  in  equal  portions. 

Item  XIX.  And  I  hereby  name  as  my  executors  and  tmstees  of  this 
my  last  will  and  testament,  Eden  Sprout,  counsellor  at  law,  George  H. 
Robinson,  William  Heniy  Wallace,  and  Cornelius  H.  Delamater ;  and  I 
hereby  give  to  them  full  power  and  authority  to  sell  and  convert  all  my 
goods  and  estates,  both  real  and  personal,  into  money,  and  to  invest  the 
same  as  may  seem  to  them  best,  and  to  do  all  things  necessary  and 
proper  to  cany  into  effect  and  execute  this  my  last  will  and  testament. 

In  Witness  Whereof  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  seal  this  fif- 
teenth day  of  May,  in  the  year  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  seventy- 
eight. 

J.  Ericsson. 
[Seal.] 

To  the  will  was  added  this  codicil : 

I,  John  Ericsson,  of  36  Beach  Street,  in  the  City,  County,  and  State 
of  New  York,  having  made  and  declared  my  last  will  and  testament, 
bearing  date  the  fifteenth  day  of  May,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
seventy-eight,  do  now  make  this  codicil,  and  direct  that  it  shall  be 
taken  as  a  part  of  my  said  will.  I  do  hereby  nominate  and  appoint  my 
friend,  Cornelius  S.  Bushnell,  of  New  Haven,  Conn.,  to  be  one  of  my  ex- 
ecutors, he  taking  the  place  of  Cornelius  H.  Delamater,  deceased.  In 
addition  to  the  bequests  to  Valdemar  F.  Lassoe  and  Samuel  W.  Taylor, 
contained  in  my  said  will,  I  hereby  give  and  bequeath  to  each  of  them 
ten  per  centum  of  my  interest,  whatever  it  may  be,  in  the  emoluments 
and  profits  that  may  be  derived  from  the  sale  of  expansion  engines, 
manufactured  and  sold  under  certain  letters  patent  granted  to  me  by  the 
United  States,  dated  December  6,  1887,  and  numbered  374,354,  for  an 
improved  compound  steam-engine.  I  also  give  and  bequeath  to  the 
said  Valdemar  F.  Lassoe  and  Samuel  W.  Taylor,  and  to  each  of  them, 
the  same  amount  of  interest  as  the  above,  namely  ten  per  centum,  of 
my  interest  in  the  emoluments  and  profits  that  may  be  derived  from 
the  sale  of  hydraulic  pumps  manufactured  and  sold  under  any  patent 


336  LIFE  OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

that  mar  be  granted  to  me  by  the  United  States  ;  an  application  for 
which  patent  was  filed  by  me  last  year  and  is  now  pending.  The  rest 
and  remainder  of  my  interests  in  the  emoluments  and  profits  arising 
from  sales  under  the  above-mentioned  two  i)atents  I  give  and  bequeath 
to  my  nephews  and  nieces,  to  be  divided  equally  between  them,  or  if 
any  one  of  them  may  have  died,  their  childi-en  to  receive  the  share  of 
the  parent,  to  be  equally  divided  between  them.  I  also  give  and  be- 
queath to  said  Valdemar  F.  Lassoe  and  Samuel  W.  Taylor,  and  to  each 
of  them,  ten  per  centum  of  my  share  in  the  interest  of  profits  and  emol- 
uments that  may  arise  from  the  manufacture  and  sale  under  any  patents 
that  may  be  gi-anted  to  me  by  the  United  States  for  certain  improve- 
ments in  caloric  engines,  for  which  it  is  my  intention  to  ajjply  for  pat- 
ents. These  improvements  are  embodied  in  two  motive  engines  just 
built  for  me,  and  designated  as  solar-engine  and  sun-motor. 

The  rest,  residue,  and  remainder  of  my  interests  in  the  so-called 
solar-engine  and  sun-motor,  under  any  patents  therefor,  I  give  and  be- 
queath to  my  nephews  and  nieces  in  equal  parts,  and  in  case  of  their 
death  to  their  children. 


So  ends  the  storv  of  John  Ericsson — the  son  of  Olof,  the 
son  of  Nils,  tlie  son  of  Eric,  the  son  of  Macrnus  Stadia  the 
miner.  I  have  set  forth  as  faithfully  as  I  could  what  he  ac- 
tually accomplished ;  the  relative  value  of  his  work,  it  is  not 
for  his  biographer  to  determine.  For  that  is  required  a  point 
of  view  impossible  to  one  who  draws  too  near  his  subject. 
Though  it  is  true,  as  I  have  said  already,  that  his  inventions 
were  not  the  result  of  waking  dreams,  but  of  the  studious 
application  of  engineering  and  mechanical  knowledge  to  new 
problems,  those  who  knew  him  most  intimately  were  accus- 
tomed to  speak  of  him  as  in  all  respects  the  most  original  man 
they  had  ever  known  ;  and  originality  was  the  striking  feature 
of  his  engineering  work.  Severely  logical  as  were  his  meth- 
ods from  his  own  point  of  view,  there  was  much  in  his 
mental  processes  suggesting  that  faculty  of  unconscious  cere- 
bration, or  whatever  it  may  be  called,  which  is  the  accom- 
paniment of  the  loftiest  flights  of  human  effort  in  all  depart- 
ments. "  Ordinary  talent  produces  artificially,  by  means  of 
rational  selection  and  combination,  guided  by  its  aesthetic 
judgment.  ...  It  may  accomplish  something  excellent, 
but  can  never  attain  to  anything  great     .     .     .     nor  produce 


THE  CLOSE  OF  A   USEFUL   LIFE.  337 

an  original  work.  .  .  .  There  is  wanting  the  divine  f re? izy, 
the  vivifying  breath  of  the  Unconscious."  * 

This  "  activity  and  efflux  of  the  Intellect  freed  from  the 
domination  of  tlie  Conscious  Will,"  however  variously  it  may 
be  accounted  for,  has  been  recognized  in  all  times  and  by  all 
schools.  With  the  Latins  it  was  the  work  of  a  tutelar  spirit ; 
with  Plato,  "  the  divine  frenzy,  gift  of  holy  daimones  ;  "  with  the 
Jewish  prophets,  '*  the  lifting  up  of  the  spirit."  Bacon  speaks 
of  it  as  a  kind  of  felicity,  working  "  not  by  rule  ;  "  Carlyle  as 
"  the  clearer  presence  of  God  Most  High  in  a  man  ; "  Hartmann 
as  "the  vivifying  presence  of  the  unconscious."  From  pagan 
philosopher  to  German  pessimist,  all  take  note  of  its  existence. 
In  an  article  on  "  Genius,"  Mr.  Stedman  includes  Ericsson  in 
his  illustrations  of  this  inborn  faculty  "  appertaining  to  the 
power  and  bent  of  the  soul  itself."  t 

Schopenhauer  tells  us  that  "  what  is  called  the  stirrings  of 
genius,  the  hour  of  consecration,  the  moment  of  inspiration,  is 
nothing  but  the  liberation  of  the  intellect,  when  the  latter,  for 
the  time  exempt  from  the  service  of  the  will,  .  .  .is  active 
all  alone,  of  its  own  accord."  Be  this  as  it  may,  he  truly  says 
that  "  in  such  moments,  as  it  were,  the  soul  of  immortal  works 
is  begotten." 

It  was  in  sucii  moments  that  John  Ericsson  did  his  best 
work.  When  he  had  a  difficult  problem  to  solve  he  would 
lean  back  in  his  chair,  with  his  head  resting  against  the  wall, 
and  sink  into  a  quiescent  state,  approaching  unconsciousness. 
Then,  as  he  was  accustomed  to  say,  his  best  thoughts  came  to 
him.  Once,  indeed,  a  puzzling  combination  in  his  solar  engine 
was  worked  out  for  him  in  a  dream.  He  had  a  profound  be- 
lief in  his  own  mission,  and  dwelt  with  interest  upon  the  his- 
tory of  the  first  Napoleon,  as  illustrating  the  tide  of  destiny 
that  carried  him  in  like  manner  on  to  his  ordained  end. 

"  Men  of  genius,"  said  Dean  Stanley,  over  the  grave  of 
Charles  Dickens,  "  are  different  from  what  we  suppose  them  to 
be.  They  have  greater  pleasures  and  greater  pains,  greater 
affections  and  greater  temptations,  than  the  generality  of  man- 

*  Hartmann's  Philosophy  of  the  Unconscious,  Englisli  edition,  vol.  i. ,  p.  267. 
t  See  article  "Genius,"  by  Edmund  C.  Stedman,  in  tlie  New  Princeton 
Review  for  September,  1886. 
Vol.  II.— 22 


338  LIFE  OF   JOHN   ERICSSON. 

kind,  and  thej  can  never  be  altogether  understood  by  their 
fellow-men."  "  Genius  implies  always  a  certain  fanaticism  of 
temperament,''  James  Eussell  Lowell  tells  us,  and  this  was  the 
secret  of  Ericsson's  difficulties.  In  his  own  department  he  was 
controlled  by  imagination,  and  if  his  life  was  one  of  constant 
friction,  it  was,  as  he  himself  explains,  because  he  saw  so  much 
that  lay  beyond  the  vision  of  those  with  whom  he  dwelt.  He 
■was  never  a  popular  man  with  his  profession,  and  he  felt  that 
much  of  the  professional  judgment  passed  upon  him  was  the 
result  of  prejudice  or  jealousy.  His  subordination  to  the  con- 
ditions under  which  he  must  work  no  doubt  explains  in  some 
measure  his  impatience  of  suggestion,  and  his  contempt  for  ad- 
verse opinion.  So  unwilling  was  he  to  follow  the  lead  of  others, 
that  the  fact  that  an  expedient  was  in  common  use  was,  in  his 
mind,  rather  an  argument  against  it  than  for  it.  It  was  only 
by  disregarding  precedent  and  example  that  he  could  free  his 
genius  from  restraint  and  accomplish  his  greatest  results :  and 
thus  the  habit  of  independence  so  grew  upon  him  that  in  his 
later  years,  when  engineering  and  mechanical  science  had  made 
progress  he  had  not  taken  full  note  of,  he  refused  to  avail  him- 
self, as  he  might  have  done  greatly  to  his  advantage,  of  meth- 
ods approved  by  experience.  Let  us,  in  spite  of  his  own  doubts, 
accept  the  cheerful  faith  of  his  friend  Adlersparre,  that  assigns 
to  him  a  kindlier  sphere  beyond,  where  just  appreciation  and 
intelligent  sympathy  may  stimulate  him  to  still  higher  efforts. 

In  the  dream  of  Piranesi,  as  described  by  Thomas  De  Quin- 
cey,  appear  Gothic  halls,  covered  with  engines  and  machin- 
erv  expressive  of  enormous  forces  overcoming  vast  resistance. 
Creeping  along  the  sides  of  this  hall  rises  a  staircase  whereon 
Piranesi  is  seen  groping  his  way  upward.  Just  beyond  him 
this  staircase  terminates  abruptly,  without  balustrade  to  stay  the 
final  step  that  is  to  plunge  liim  into  the  depth  below.  Here, 
then,  must  end  the  labors  of  Piranesi.  But  behold  beyond  a 
still  higher  flight,  with  Piranesi  still  ascending,  and  again  and 
asjain  still  more  aerial  flights,  until  the  unfinished  stairs  and 
Piranesi  both  are  lost  in  the  upper  gloom  of  the  hall. 

Fitting  symbol  is  this  of  the  labors  of  John  Ericsson. 


INDEX. 


Academies  (see  Societies) 

Actinometer,  the,  ii.  284,  290 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  describes  bursting 
of  Peacemaker,  i.  125,  126 

Adams,  William,  experiments  with  solar 
heat,  ii.  271 

Adelskold's  biography  of  NUs  Ericson,  i. 
14 

Adlersparre,  Axel,  ii.  120,  156,  159,  161, 
237,  239,  333,  338;  letters  to,  ii.  124, 
138,  180,  203,  204,  2;J3,  238,  249,  250 

Admiralty,  British,  ii.  91,  163,  1(54,  173; 
advised  to  employ  Ericsson  on  its  ar- 
mor-clads,  ii.  80,  82,  83.  104,  105,  108 ; 
compelled  to  follow  his  lead,  i.  138  ;  en- 
gine trials  by,  iL  189  ;  hostility  of,  to  in- 
vention, ii.  87,  89,  90,  108;  opposes 
screw,  i.  89,  90,  164,  170,  171 ;  ii.  82,  83, 
93,  140,  176  ;  rejects  armor,  i.  234,  244  ; 
tests  amphibic  projectiles,  ii.  175;  treat- 
ment of  Brunei  by,  i.  234;  warned  by 
the  ATonitor,  L  202,  255 

Admiralty  Board  for  United  States,  ii. 
113 

Africa,  regeneration  of,  through  solar 
motor,  iL  270 

AfzeUua  instructs  Olof  Ericsson's  sons, 
i.  15 

Agassiz,  Louis,  discusses  granting  Rum- 
ford  prize,  i.  219 

Age  of  caloric  and  age  of  steam,  i.  192 

Agreement  with  Stockton  concerning 
Princeton,  i.  146  (see  Princeton) 

Air,  compressed,  early  use  of,  i.  Stf 

Air,  mode  of  supplying  to  caloric  engine, 
i.  204 

Amaranthus  Lodge  of  Odd  Fellows,  ii. 
324 

American  waters,  introduction  of  screw- 
vessels  upon,  i.  155 

Amouton's  hot-air  engine,  1699,  i.  71 

Amphibic  projectile,  ii.  159 

Anaxagoras  explains  sun's  nature,  iL  283 

Anchor-well  of  the  Mmtitor,  ii.  10 

Anecdotes,  i.  112,  115,  135.  136.  204,  221, 
231,  2.55,  256,  2.58,  260,  261,  271  ;  iL  51, 
80,  186,  216,  221,  230,  234,  239,  a40,241, 
24:^,  245,  30.5-319 

Angle  of  repose  between  iron  and  iron, 
ii.  97 


154, 
101; 

177, 


Anglo-Peruvian  conflict,  xise  of  torpc3oee 
in,  ii.  151 

Anglo-Saxon  race  might  rule  the  world, 
ii.  87 

Anthracite  coal,  experiments  with,  i. 
181 

Apparatus  employed  in  solar  investiga- 
tion, ii.  281 

Archimedes  fires  Roman  fleet  with  burn- 
ing-glasses, iL  271 

Argyle  Rooms,  fire  at,  i.  46,  106 

Aristocratic  prejudice  against  railroads, 
L  51 

Armor  and  projectiles,  beginning  of  war 
between,  i.  138 

Armor,  early  experiments  with,  i. 
243  ;  ii.  116,  1 17 ;  laminated,  iL 
thickness  of,  ii.  106,  149 

Armored  vessels  advertised  for,  i. 
242,  246 ;  antiquity  of,  ii.  115 ;  appro- 
priation for,  ii.  2  ;  British,  iL  171,  224  ; 
Confederates  adopt,  i.  245,  273 ;  de- 
mand for,  ii.  3  ;  Ericsson's  early  rec- 
ommendations concerning,  L  177 ;  exam- 
ples of  rapid  building,  L  260 ;  naval 
ignorance  concerning,  i.  275 ;  obsolete, 
ii.  15,  16,  1.53,  165,  166,  170;  Russia 
proposes  for,  ii.  3 ;  Secretary  Welles' 
doubts  concerning,  i.  245 ;  supersede 
wooden  vessels,  iL  1  (see  Monitors) 

Armstrong  gun,  failure  prophesied,  ii. 
140 

Armstrong,  Sir  William,  his  plagiarism, 
ii.  143,  144 

Army  and  Navy  Journal,  i.  162,  262,  299; 
iL  57,  141,  160 

Army,  Swedish,  organization  of,  i.  24; 
Ericsson's  experiences  in,  L  17,  18,  24- 
29,  36  ;  ii.  228 

Artificial  draught,  use  of,  i.  40,  55,  57 ; 
iL  183 

Artillery,  England  deficient  in  science  of, 
ii.  8.5 

Artillery',  flying,  proposition  for,  iL  34 

Artillery  of  Plantagenets  supersedes  that 
of  NoiTOans,  iL  84 

Artillery,  studies  of,  i.  25,  124,  177,  233, 
247,  2(!5 

Artillery,  submarine,  ii.  155 ;  economy 
of,  iL  170 


340 


INDEX. 


Asiatic  countries,  influence  of  solar  mo- 
tors on,  ii.  27U 

Astor  House,  residence  at,  L  108-111  ;  ii 
302 

Austro-Italian  war,  use  of  torpedoes  in, 
ii.  151 

Autograph  answer  to  requests  for,  ii. 
209 

Auzout,  Bouguer,  and  Huygens  measure 
solar  light,  ii.  287 

Bacon,  Sir  Francis,  ii.  337 

Baltic  and  Pacific  compared  with  caloric 
ship,  i.  11*2 

Balanced  rudder,  ii.  .57,  .58 

Baltimore,  the,  transports  Ericsson's  re- 
mains to  Sweden,  ii.  326-332 

Banquet  following  the  Rainhill  contest, 
i.  t)6 

Bancroft,  George,  U.  207 

Barclay's  brewery  tests  steam  fire-en- 
gine, i.  46 

Barnard,  Dr.  F.  A.  P.,  explains  defects 
of  caloric  engine.  L  208 

Barnard,  General  J.  G.,  iL  178 

Barometer,  alarm,  i.  183 

Batteries,  floating,  of  England  and 
France,  i.  242 

Battles,  naval,  examples  from,  ii.  11 ; 
losses  in,  ii.  61 

Battle  record  of  monitors,  iL  50,  58,  .59, 
60,  61,  62,  65,  69,  92,  93,  99 

Battle-ships,  progressive  studies  of,  i.  178 ; 
waste  of  money  on,  ii.  152 

Bazaine,  Marshal,  in  Mexico,  ii.  224 

Beach  Street,  home  in,  i.  114 ;  ii.  302- 
319 

Beaumont,  ^Master,  introduces  tramways 
in  England,  i.  50 

Beauregard,  General,  commends  night  at- 
tack on  Charleston,  iL  46 

Beer  &  Madler's  charts  of  moon,  ii.  298, 
299 

Bernadotte  becomes  crown  prince  of 
Sweden,  i.  13  ;  his  interest  in  Ericsson, 
i.  28 

Berwick-on-the-Tweed,  a  free  town,  L 
173 

Bessemers,  father  and  son,  iL  208 

Betrothal,  ceremony  of,  in  Sweden,  L 
32  ;  early,  condemned,  iL  224 

Bigelow,  Jacob,  discusses  granting  Rum- 
ford  prize,  i.  219 

Bigelow,  John,  Life  of  Bryant,  ii.  246 

Biography  of  Eriosson  proposed,  ii.  238 

Bill  for  work  upon  Princeton,  i.  142  ;  re- 
ferred to  Stockton,  L  143  (see  Prince- 
ton) 

Birkenhead  in  1818,  L  69 

Black  Diamond  h&rge,  i.  1.56 

Black  Sea,  British  experiences  in,  i.  245 

Blackmailing  assaults  on  monitors,  iL 
100,  233-235 

Blackwootrg  ifagazine  quoted,  i.  55 

Blaine,  James  (?.,  ii.  325 

Blair,  General  F.  P. ,  ii.  34 

Blaxland,  screw  invented  by,  i.  171 


Bloodgood,  William,  i.  199 ;  purchases 
interest  in  caloric  engine,  i.  188 

Blue  ribbon  of  Sweden,  ii.  208 

Board  on  armored  vessels  appointed,  i. 
246,  249,  274  ;  Ericsson's  interview  with, 
L  252 ;  ignorance,  i.  247  ;  recommends 
three  vessels,  i.  249 

BouUee,  Dr.  J.  C,  iL  323 

Bourne,  John,  i.  61 ;  commends  Ericsson 
to  British  Admiralty,  iL  82,  83,  84,  85, 
114  ;  corresiKiudeuce  with,  L  167  ;  iL  12, 
6V,  80,  81,  82,  86, 104,  10.5,  106,  116,  144, 
14.5,  148,  153,  1S5,  189;  credits  inven- 
tion of  screw  to  Ericsson,  L  97,  170  ; 
describes  Ericsson's  engineering  abili- 
ties, ii.  258 ;  opinion  of  Novelty  loco- 
motive, L  64  ;  of  Ericsson's  critics,  ii 
199 ;  testimony  to  value  of  the  Monitor, 
iL  106,  107,  108 

Booth,  Sir  Felix,  introduces  Sir  John 
Ross  to  Ericsson,  i.  40,  41 

Boot-jack,  or  obstruction  remover,  ii  49 

Bomford,  Colonel,  i  243 

Boilers,  low,  for  war  vessels,  ii  181 

Boom  torpedo,  ii.  1.59 

Bow  on  fighting  in  Sweden,  ii  122 

Boxer,  vessel  blown  up  by  Colt,  ii  155 

Boxer,  Colonel,  loses  a  son  on  H.  >L  S. 
Captain,  ii.  Ill 

Brains,  influence  of,  in  warfare,  ii.  258 

Brains,  men  of,  vs.  men  of  position,  i 
109 

Braithwaite,  John,  i  56-58 

Braithwaite  and  Ericsson, 'firm  of,  i.  38, 
41,  42,  43,  4(i,  47,  48,  61,  67,  72,  92 

BramweU,  Sir  Frederick,  condemns 
steam  engine,  i.  201  ;  testifies  to  the 
value  of  heat-engine,  i.  214 

Brandenburg,  Lieutenant,  teaches  EricB- 
son  drawing,  L  15 

Bra.ssey's  "  British  Navy  "  quoted,  i.  260  ; 
ii.  91,  107,  110 

Breeching,  first  discarded  by  Ericsson, 
ii.  136,  142,  145 

Bremer,  Fredrika,  iL  233 

Bridge  water  Works,  ii.  140 

British  iron-clad  navy,  iL  144 

Broadside  vessels,  money  wasted  on,  in 
England,  ii.  113;  prejudices  in  favor 
of,  iL  12,  62 ;  vs.  turret  ships,  iL  IS, 
78 

Brother  Jo7iathan,  paf)er  quoted,  i.  128 

Browning,  S.  B.,  letters  to,  iL  173,  176, 
192,  220 

Bull,  Ole.  li.  241,  242,  243 

Brunei,  L  K. ,  contention  with  British 
Admiralty,  L  164,  234,  2:^5 ;  his  son, 
ii.  208  ;  opinion  of  caloric  engine,  i.  73 ; 
of  patent  laws,  ii.  240 ;  recommends 
screw  for  Great  Eastern,  L  163 

Biyant,  William  CuUen,  cowhides  a  fel- 
low editor,  ii.  246 

Buftbn's  experiments  with  concave  mir- 
rors, ii.  271 

Bulkheads,  water-tight,  recommended  in 
1846,  i.  177 

Bureaux,  Naval,  disadvantages  of  system, 


INDEX. 


341 


ii.  36  ;  opposition  of,  i.  234  ;  ii.  2  ;  plans 
for  armor-clads,  ii.  1  ;  procrastination, 
ii.  7,  25,  o(),  37 

Burgoyne,  Sir  John,  i.  235  ;  ii.   Ill 

Burning-glasses,  experiments  with,  ii.  271 

Burnside,  Ambrose  E.,  General,  i.  288 

Burr,  Aaron,  i.  156 

Bushnell,  C.  S.,  i.  2.52,  257;  ii.  335;  tells 
story  of  the  Monitor,  i.  248  ;  letter  to 
Ericsson,  ii.  o 

Butler,  W.  C,  nominated  for  vice-presi- 
dent, i.  181 

Byam,  Amelia,  marries  John  Ericsson,  L 
82 

Byron,  Lord,  quoted,  ii.  280 

California,  Lower,  advantages  of  using 
the  solar  engine  there,  ii.  270 

Cable  torpedo,  the,  iL  15.5-161 

Caloric  engine,  i.  72,  73  ;  ii.  182,  224,  262, 
268 ;  admired  by  Professor  Horsford,  i. 
212 ;  advantages  of,  i.  84,  l'Ji»,  200,  204; 
application  of  cold  blast  to,  i.  212 ;  be- 
comes profitable,  i.  202  ;  Canada  grants 
patent  for,  by  special  act,  i.  214  ;  cost  of 
experiments,  i.  200,  201,  206  ;  defects  of, 
i.  197, 199  ;  demand  for,  lessened,  i.  211; 
difficulties  of  high  temperature  in,  i.  76  ; 
discussion  of  its  principle,  i.  213  ;  Dr. 
Barnard  explains  its  defects,  i.  207 ; 
experiments  with,  i.  185  ;  failure  in,  i. 
199  ;  Faraday  lectures  on,  i.  75  ;  history 
of,  i.  200,  202,  212 ;  inseparable  from 
civilization,  i.  211 ;  number  sold,  L  203, 
206  ;  receipts  from  patent  rights,  i.  206  ; 
saving  of  fuel  in,  i.  187  ;  simplicity  of,  i. 
308 ;  testimonials  to  its  value,  i.  73,  75, 
199,  200,  214 ;  ii.  200 ;  caloric  pumping 
engine  improved  and  sold  extensively, 
ii  273,  274 

Calorio  ship.  i.  189;  a  mechanical  tri- 
umph, i.  193  ;  compared  with  monitors 
and  Great  Eastern,  i.  192;  coal  con- 
sumption of,  i.  192,  196 ;  converted  into 
a  sailer,  i  198  ;  engines  of,  i.  19.5,  212; 
Ericsson's  opinion  of  it,  i.  191,  198;  its 
visit  to  Washington,  i.  193 ;  machin- 
ery described,  i.  193  ;  makes  a  second 
trill  trip,  i.  195  ;  safety  and  comfort 
of,  i.  190  ;  serves  as  a  transport  at  Port 
Royal,  L  198  ;  sinking  of,  described  by 
Ericsson,  i.  195;  speed  of,  i.  193,  196  ; 
transformed  into  a  steamer,  i.  197  ;  Vir- 
ginia Legislature  invited  to  visit,  i.  194 

Calorimeters,  used  for  experiment,  ii. 
286 

Canal-boat  fitted  with  screw,  i.  98 ;  in- 
ventions in  connection  with,  i.  78,  108, 
113,  182.  204 

Canvas  valves  for  air-pumps  first  applied, 
i.  165 

Carlstadt,  sufferers  by  fire  relieved,  ii. 
227  I 

Carlist  insurrection  in  Spain,  ii.  101  ' 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  ii.  305-;307  i 

Carpenter,  Senator  M.  H.,  ii.  130 

Carriage  for  guns,  ii.  135  (see  also  Gims)    | 


Cass,  Lewis,  nominated  for  Presidency, 

i.  181 
Cabualties  on  armored  vessels,  ii.  15,  61 
Cast-Lron  for  guns,  i.  136 
Cavendish  and  Baily  measure  gravitation, 

ii.  288 
Cellular  system,  use  of,  in  vessels,  i.  163 ; 

ii.  163 
Cemetery  in  Second  Street,  temporary  in- 
terment in,  ii.  324 
Central  Park  never  visited,  ii.  309 
Centre,  advantage  of  turning  a  vessel  on, 

ii.  12 
Challenger  expedition,  ii.  299 
Chamber  of   Commerce,  N.  Y.,  ii.  179; 

votes  thanks  for  Monitor,  i.  245 
Chandler,  W.  E.,  Secretary  of  Navy,  ii.  168 
Charleston,  S.  C,  attack  on,  ii.  45,65,  67, 

137 ;    capture  of  not  desired,    ii.  124 ; 

night  assault  on,  Beauregard's  opinion 

of,  ii.  46,  47 ;  obstructions  in  harbor  of, 

ii.  46  ;  use  of  monitors  during  the  siege 

of,  ii.  59,  60,  61,  62,  92 
Chelmsford,  Baron,  i.  171. 
Childers,  Lord,  loses  a  son  on  H.  M.  S. 

Captain,  ii.  Ill 
Chilian  Government  wishes  monitors,  ii. 

75 
ChUi-Peruvian  War,  ii.  173 
China  first  used  the  screw,  i.  173 
Church,  last  visit  to  one,  i.  82  ;  member- 
ship in  and  contributions  to  Lutheran, 

u.  255,  256 
Church,  William  C,  letters  to,  ii.  102, 160 
Chute,  Sir  Trevor   and   Lady,  i.  82;  ii. 

220,  221 
City  Hall  Park  centre  of  fashion,  ii.  303 
Civilization,  influence  of  solar  motors  on, 

ii.  266,  269,  270 
Civil  War,  our  lessons  of  the,  ii.  184 
Clarion,  first  ocean  propeller,  i.  109,  110, 

153 
Client  and  patron,  new  phase  of  quarrel 

between,  i.  109 
Clowes,  W.  Laird,  on  ramming,  ii.  11 
Climber,  experimental  engine,  i.  182 
Coal  armor,  i.  134;  ii.  ISl,  183 
Coal  consumption  in  caloric  ship,  i.  192; 

in  modern  engines,  i.  207 
Coal  to  be  scarce  as  diamonds,  ii.  191, 192, 

264,  265 
Coast  defences  not  needed,  ii.  170 
Cog-wheel  system,  i.  120 
Coles  and  Ericsson  compared  (see  Navy, 

British),  ii.  Ill 
Collins  Steamer  Line,  ii.  186 
Colt,  Samuel,  torpedo  experiment  of,  ii. 

1.55 
Columbiad,  Bomford's,  i.  244 
Comfort,  personal,  as  a  naval  factor,  ii. 

.55,  106 
Commercial  rivalry  between  England  auJ 

America,  ii.  87 
Compressed  air,  early   use  of,  i.  39 ;  ii. 

154,  176 
Compromise  required  in  naval  vessels,  ii 

55 


342 


INDEX. 


Condenser,  independent  action,  i  183 

Confederate  (government,  L  373 ;  caauai- 
ties  to  its  naval  vessels,  ii.  58,  59 ;  use 
of  torpedoes  by,  ii.  151  (see  Navy,  Con- 
federate) 

Congress  of  United  States,  L  149,  284 ; 
iL  157,  172,  311,  315;  acknowledges  na- 
tional debt  to  Ericsson,  ii.  207  ;  action 
on  Princeton  claim,  i.  145,  14v> ;  ii  205, 
306  ;  applies  for  models  of  an  iron  shot- 
proof  vessel,  L  177;  authorizes  steam 
vessels  of  war,  L  105  ;  investigates  light- 
draughts,  ii.  31  ;  report  on  Cuban  in- 
surrection, Li.  101  ;  resolution  concern- 
ing Nihilists,  ii.  77 ;  uncomplimentary 
opinion  of  it,  ii.  2m  ;  votes  thanks  for 
Monitor,  i.  2'.U  ;  ii.  197,  204  ;  war,  com- 
mittee on  conduct  of,  i.  298,  299 

Congreve  Colonel,  ii.  151 

Conservatism  of  sailors,  ii.  63,  94 

Constitution,  Swedish,  adopted  in  1809,  L 
12 

Consul  of  Sweden  transmits  Afonitor  offer 
to  Napoleon  III. ,  L  240 

"Contributions  to  Centennial  Exhibi- 
tion," work  so  entitled,  i.  131,  182, 
186,  210,  211  ;  ii  215,  278,  279,  294 

Contractor,  experience  as  a,  i.  209 ;  iL 
19,  22,  38,  43,  43 

Controversy  over  monitors,  ii.  54 

Cooper,  Peter,  a  welcome  visitor,  ii.  247 ; 
builds  first  American  locomotive,  ii. 
247  ;  exchanges  reminiscences,  iL  248 

Copper,  conductivity  of,  ii.  291 

Corsair,  steamer,  application  of  fan-blow- 
er to,  L  70,  132 

Court  of  Claims  allows  Princeton  claim, 
i.  14S,  149  ;  but  it  is  never  paid,  iL  205 

Cowper,  E.  A. ,  opinion  of  the  Xovelty,  i. 
56 

Creator,  benevolent,  belief  in  a,  ii.  249; 
subject  to  the  limitations  of  mathemat- 
ical laws,  iL  249,  251 

Crimean  war,  experience  of  plunging 
fire  in,  iL  45  ;  introduces  shell  firing,  i. 
244;  record  of  guns  used  in,  iL  136; 
use  of  torpepoes  in,  iL  151 

Criticisms  of  Monitor  by  naval  oflBcers, 
iL  64,  66 ;  answered,  U.  11,  199 

Crocodile,  the.  and  armored  vessels  com- 
pared, iL  1.52 

Cronstadt  defended  against  Napier,  i. 
244,  275  ;  iL  151 

Crotoa  aqueduct  adopts  fluid  meter,  i. 
183 

Cruisers,  fast,  superior  to  torpedo  boats, 
iL  174 ;  those  of  the  United  States 
worthless,  ii.  181 

Crvstal  Palace,  Exhibition  of,  1851,  L 
183 

Cuba,  use  of  caloric  engines  in,  i.  203 

Cuban  insurrection,  American  sympathy 
with,  ii.  101,  102,  127  ;  success  of  pre- 
vented, ii.  131 

Cuban  Junta  libel  Spanish  gunboats,  iL 
129 

Capola  ship  Captain,  ii.  109,  112,  113 


Cutting,  Francis  B.,  enggeBts  caloric  ship^ 

L  191 
Cylinders  of  caloric  engine,  L  20t 

Dahlgren  gtm  anticipated,  ii.  135-137; 
record  of,  ii.  136 

Dalton's  theory  discussed,  L  213 

Daniel,  J.  F. ,  tables  corrected,  ii.  284 

D' Arson,  Chevalier,  his  attack  on  Gibral- 
tar, iL  115 

Daylight,  steamer  with  Ericsson's  en» 
gine,  L  255 

Death-bed  scenes,  iL  323 

Death  of  Ericsson  falsely  reported,  iL  194 

Degrees  conferred  on  Ericsson,  ii.  197 

De  Kay,  Commodore,  commends  Prince- 
ton,'L  133 

Delamater,  C.  H.,  association,  with  Erics- 
son, L  112,  169,  226,  242,  248,  259;  ii. 
14,  166,  187,  191,  Ite,  244,  245,  374,  302, 
321,  336  ;  builds  the  Iron  Witrh,  L  112. 
160;  builds  Spanish  gunboats,  ii.  128, 
129;  correspondence  with,  ii.  169,186, 
187,  244 ;  his  estimate  of  Ericsson,  ii. 
244 

Delisle'w  claim  to  screw,  L  97 

DelUnger,  Dr.,  purchases  interest  in  ca- 
loric engine,  L  188 

Democratic  nomination  for  Presidency, 
184S,  i.  181 

De  Quincey,  Thomas,  iL  338 

Descartes'  vortex  exceeded,  ii.  298 

Despatch  flag,  United  States,  ii.  330 

Destroyer,  torpedo  boat,  ii.  89,  1.54,  181, 
244 ;  commercial  interests  hostile  to,  ii. 
170 ;  Commodore  Jeffers's  approval  of, 
ii.  162  ;  first  suggested,  i.  240  ;  ii.  162, 
163  ;  history  of,  li.  162-181  ;  motive  en- 
gine of,  ii.  176;  object  in  building,  ii. 
168  ;  offered  to  foreign  governments,  iL 
172.  173 

Deville.  ii.  294 

Devil's  Backbone,  engagement  known  as, 
ii.  42 

Diary  kept  by  Ericsson,  i.  262 ;  de- 
8tro5'ed,  ii.  309 

Diathermacy  of  flames,  ii.  291 

Dickens,  Charles,  ii.  337 

Diet,  Swedish,  members  of  Ericsson  fam- 
ily belonging  to,  ii.  223 

Dimmock.  Charles,  orders  steam  canal- 
boat,  i.  183 

Direct  acting  screw  system,  father  of,  i. 
87,  120 

Discouragements  attending  building  of 
Monitor,  L  266 

Displacement  of  Monitor,  i.  365-366  (see 
Monitor) 

Distance,  instrument  for  measuring,  L 
129-132,  184 

Dix,  Rev.  Dr.  Morgan,  ii.  324 

Dobbin.  Secretary  of  Navy,  ridiculea 
monitor  idea,  L  2^37 

Documents  accompanying  Princeton  pe- 
tition to  Congress,  i.  147 

Dodge,  William  and  Mrs.  Mary  Mapes,  i. 
233 


INDEX. 


343 


Dog,  agreement  concerning  a,  ii.  305 
Domestic  relations,  i.  281 ;  IL  224-336 
Dorothea,  blown  up  by  Fulton's  torpedo, 

ii.  151 
Draft  of  1863,  effect  of,  on  monitor  work, 

ii.  42 
"Drake's  American  Biography,"  ii.  194 
Draught,  light,  advantages  of,  ii.  103 
Dream  solves  a  mechanical  difficulty,  ii. 

337 
Drew,  Daniel,  as  a  competitor,  i.  161 
Drinking   habits,  prejudice  against,    ii. 

311 
Drury's  BluflF,  attack  on,  ii.  44 
Du  Chaillu,  Paul,  quoted,  L  86 
Duck,  Mrs.  Ericsson's  pet  name,  i.  157 
Duel  with  Sir  John  Ross  threatened,  i.  43 
Dulong  and  Petit  corrected,  ii.  384 
Dundonald,  Lord,  on  shell-firing,  i.  245 
Du  Pont  de  Nemours,  ii.  64 
Dupont's  attack  on  Port  Royal  and  on 

Charleston  (see  heading  Navy,  Officers 

of) 
Dunham,  Edward,  invests  in  caloric  ship, 

i.  189 
Dutch  Reformed  Messenger  uses  caloric 

engine,  i  203 

Eads,  James  B.,  ii.  199 

EJastern  Counties  Railway,  resigns  posi- 
tion as  engineer  of,  i.  104 

Edet  saw-mills,  home  at,  i.  15 

Edison,  opinion  of,  i.  205 ;  ii.  359 

Edith.,  auxiliary  steam  bark,  i.  158,  159, 
163,  180  ;  ii.  185 

Edstrom,  J.,  Captain,  influence  on  Erics- 
son's career,  i.  15 

Egypt,  future  possibilities  of,  through  so- 
lar motor,  ii.  270 

Elworth,  Hjalmar  (Ericsson's  son),  i.  34, 
35 ;  ii.  213-217,  219,  223,  331,  333,  335 

Emerson,  J.  B.,  claims  the  screw,  i.  168, 
169  ;  destroys  profits  of  the  invention, 
i.  170 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  quoted,  ii.  236 

Empire,  Hudson  River  steamer,  L  161 

"  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  "  gives  credit 
for  screw  to  Ericsson,  i.  170 

Engineers  creators  of  modem  conditions 
of  thought,  ii.  2.59 

Engines,  back  action,  i.  156;  British, 
worthless  character  of,  i.  121  ;  carrying 
225  pounds  pressure,  ii.  193  ;  compound, 
ii.  183,  193  ;  condemned  during  Civil 
War,  ii  44 ;  double  with  single  crank- 
pin,  ii.  185;  electrical,  ii.  191;  flame 
engine,  i.  35,  36,  37,  38,  39.  71, 184,  212 ; 
ii.  320 ;  multi-cylinder,  disbelief  in,  ii. 
191 ;  oscillating,  i.  180  ;  ii.  186  ;  perfec- 
tion, i.  176  ;  the  Princeton' s  compared 
with  British,  i.  133  ;  semi-cylinder,  i. 
132 ;  ii.  185  ;  single  cylinder,  i.  1.56  ;  the 
last  engine  invented,  ii.  190-193  ;  twin 
Bcrews  first  applied  to,  i.  1.56  ;  uniform 
Buccesa  of  Ericsson's,  i.  336 ;  vertical, 
for  working  twin  screws,  i.  165 ;  with 
2,000  turns  a  minute,  iL  190 


Engineering  judgments,  fallacy  of,  ii.  309 

Engineering,  London  paper,  i.  48,  155  : 
ii.  79,  157,  184,  185,  277,  278 

Engineering  military  studies,  i.  333;  ii. 
11 

Engineering  report,  adverse  never  made 
against  Ericsson,  ii.  187 

Engineering,  steam,  contributions  to, 
ii.  182-193 

Engineering  vs.  military  sentiment,  ii 
152;  vs.  nautical  experience,  iL  89, 
118,  184 

Engineering  work  during  Civil  War,  poor 
character  of,  ii.  43,  73 

Engineers'  appreciation  of  Ericsson's  tal- 
ent, ii.  80 

Engineers  of  monitors,  their  ignorance 
of  their  business,  ii.  54-71 

England  and  Wales,  area  of,  ii.  395 

England  follows  the  lead  of  France,  i. 
244  ;  losing  supremacy  of  sea,  i.  153, 
173 

England,  removal  to,  i.  36 ;  proposal  to 
revisit,  i.  187 

English  language,  Ericsson's  thorough 
command  of,  i.  223 

English  pilot's  fear  of  a  monitor,  ii.  3 

English  public  opinion,  ii.  81,  86;  vacil- 
lation concerning  guns  and  vessels,  ii. 
85 

Engraving  machine,  i.  30,  31 

Enterprise,  screw  vessel,  runs  on  Ashby 
de  la  Zouche  Canal,  i.  99 

Equipoise  rudder,  i.  174 

Erie  Canal  and  Lake  Erie,  first  propellers 
used  on,  i.  109 

Ericsson,  John,  acquaintances  (see  head- 
ings Bernadotte,  Bomford,  Brunei, 
Bull,  Bushnell,  Cooper,  Delamater, 
Forbes,  Fox,  Griswold,  Horsford,  Jef- 
fers.  Laird,  Lardner,  MacCord,  Mapes, 
Markoe,  Ogden,  Sargent,  Stoughton, 
Vignoles,  Von  Platen,  Von  Rosen, 
Winslow,  Woodcroft)  ;  admiralty  ad- 
vised to  employ  him,  ii.  82-85,  104 ; 
admiration  for  Milton,  i.  237  ;  ances- 
tors, i.  3,  4  ;  antagonisms  encoun- 
tered (see  Fox,  Emerson,  Isherwood, 
Stockton  and  Naval  Antagonisms). 
Anticipates  balanced  rudder,  iL  57, 
58;  coal  armor,  L  134;  iL  181,  183; 
compressed  air,  i.  39  ;  ii.  1.54,  176 ; 
Dahlgren  gun,  iL  135 ;  direct-acting 
screw  system,  i.  87, 120  ;  Fell  Railroad, 
i.  182 ;  and  water-tight  bulkheads,  i. 
177.  Application  of  hot-air  principle 
(see  Caloric  Engine,  Caloric  Ship,  Hot- 
air  and  Regenerative  Principle)  ;  of 
screw  (see  Edith,  Marmora,  Massa- 
chusetts, Prijieeton,  Propeller,  Midas, 
Screw,  Water  Witrh).  Believes  war  is  in 
its  infancy,  ii.  148  ;  that  sun  motor  will 
transfer  empire  to  Africa,  Li.  270.  Bi- 
ography proposed,  ii.  238  ;  birthday 
observances,  ii.  237,  317 ;  bo3ash  pur- 
suits, L  8 ;  builds  Spanish  gun-boats, 
ii.    128-133.     Condemns    displays    of 


844 


INDEX. 


learning,  ii.  73 ;  England's  policy  to- 
ward United  States,  ii.  87  ;  Father 
Secchi's  theories,  ii.  214,  282,  286,  289 ; 
heavy  iron-clads,  ii.  180 ;  hunting,  iL 
235 ;  La  Place's  theories,  ii.  87  ;  hght- 
draught  monitors,  ii.  20-;i3 ;  Melloni's 
theories,  ii.  28o,  28i' ;  light  charges  in 
monitor  gun.s,  li.  137  ;  and  utilitarian 
spirit  of  times,  ii.  195.  Confidence  in 
himself,  L  19S;  Congressional  action 
concerning  him  (see  Congress)  ;  con- 
tributes paper  to  Institution  of  Civil 
Engineers,  i.  o4.  Contributes  to  Crystal 
Palace  Exhibition  of  18.51,  i.  183  ;  to 
peace  cause,  iL  88  ;  to  steam  engineer- 
ing (see  Chapter  xxx. )  ;  and  to  various 
periodicals,  i.  48,  191,  215 ;  ii.  157,  185, 
277,  278,  293,  294,  317.  Contributions 
to  Centennial  Exhibition  (see  this 
title)  ;  corrects  heat  tables  of  Regnault 
and  Joule,  i.  211  ;  Croton  Aqueduct 
adopts  his  meter,  L  183;  Court  of 
Claims  allows  Princeton  claim,  i.  148, 
149 ;  dealings  with  Navy  Department 
(see  Navy  Department)  ;  death-bed 
scenes,  ii.  323  ;  declines  to  visit  Wash- 
ington when  Peacemaker  explodes,  i. 
141 ;  declines  membership  in  National 
Academy,  ii.  199  ;  deprived  of  his  prop- 
erty in  the  screw  propeller,  i.  168,  169, 
17() ;  destroys  his  diary,  ii.  309  ;  diffi- 
culties with  officials  explained,  235  ; 
dines  with  Washington  Irving,  194. 
Discusses  European  politics,  i.  220 ; 
philosophv,  i.  223.  Discards  breeching, 
ii.  136,  142,  165;  cogwheels,  i.  120; 
gearing  for  engines,  i.  16.5.  Disap- 
pointed in  result  of  JfoJiitor  fight,  i. 
283  ;  domestic  relations,  i.  173,  231  ;  ii. 
224-226  ;  drawings  of  Gota  Canal,  21  ; 
early  education, -L  14-18;  eloquence, 
i  194,  2.50-251,  264;  ii.  81;  "En- 
cyclopaedia Britannica"  acknowledges 
his  claim  to  screw,  i.  170;  engineer's 
appreciation  of  his  talent,  ii.  80 ;  en- 
gines steamer  Victory  (see  Victory) ; 
etymology  of  name,  i.  3 ;  executes 
drawing  of  Sunderland  iron  bridge, 
21 ;  experiences  with  Princeton  (see 
Princeton  and  Stockton).  Experiments 
with  anthracite  coal,  i.  181  ;  with  tor- 
pedoes, iL  263.  Extent  of  his  work, 
199 ;  extravagance  in  experimenting, 
67 ;  fails  in  attempt  to  apply  caloric 
engine  to  navigation,  i.  107,  and  the 
Bcrew  to  canal  boats,  L  182  ;  false  re- 
port of  his  death,  ii.  194;  financial  ex- 
periences (see  Financial)  ;  flame  engine, 
1.  85 ;  funeral,  ii.  253,  324-.332  ;  great 
part  in  Civil  War,  i.  233  ;  hires  neigh- 
bors to  keep  quiet,  iL  306,  307  ;  his  in- 
ventions pirated,  ii.  275 ;  his  son  (see 
Elworth)  ;  histrionic  tastes,  L  28  ; 
honors  received,  i.  184,  221,  290.  2%; 
iL  194-204.  Hostility  to  routine,  L  8; 
to  Russia,  i.  240 ;  to  slaverj-,  L  241. 
Xmprovee  steam  engine  (see  Engines  and 


Steam)  ;  incarcerated  in  Fleet  Prison, 
L  192 ;  inconsistency,  ii.  307  ;  inter- 
view with  armor  board,  i.  252  ;  inven- 
torj-  of  his  estate,  ii.  332  ;  last  days,  iL 
320-322;  last  finished  work,  iL  320; 
leveller  on  Gota  Canal,  i.  16;  life  in 
London,  L  81  ;  library,  L  823,  224 ;  lin- 
guistic abilities,  i.  223,  224 ;  literarj- 
ability,  ii.  317  (see  Characteristics) ; 
local  influences  shaping  his  character,  i. 
6 ;  makes  designs  for  first  British  war 
screw  steamer,  138  ;  makes  his  first  in- 
ventions when  nine  jears  old,  i.  19,  20  ; 
mastery  of  nautical  problems,  iL  111; 
member  of  Amaranthus  Lodge  of  Odd 
Fellows,  iL  324,  and  Union  Club,  i.  191 ; 
ii.  302,  311  ;  meteorological  studies,  iL 
290;  methods  of  keeping  accounts,  L 
157 ;  monument  at  Filipstad,  ii.  2(.'0 ;  en- 
tombment there,  ii.  Sil ;  monument  at 
Langbanshyttan,  iL  200-204  ;  military 
experience,  i.  17,  IS,  24,  25,  26,  28,  36, 
3S ;  ii.  29,  6.5,  228  ;  naturalized,  i.  181  ; 
neglect  of  holidays,  i.  181 ;  of  Ericsson 
at  outbreak  of  Civil  War,  i.  224  ;  never 
reads  Swedish  books,  i.  224 ;  New  York 
Legislature  votes  thanks,  ii.  197  ;  au- 
thorizes monument,  iL  324.  Observance 
of  Thanksgiving,  i.  221  ;  offered  com- 
missionership  to  Paris  Exposition,  iL 
196  ;  offers  to  build  war  steamer,  i.  237 ; 
offers  his  services  to  Lincoln,  i.  246. 
Opinions  as  to  taking  Charleston,  iL 
45-49;  on  harbor  defence,  ii.  102,  179; 
of  Edison,  i.  205  ;  ii.  259 ;  of  James  B. 
Eads,  ii.  199  ;  of  monitors,  ii.  102 ;  of 
marriage,  iL  224,  225,  230;  on  moral 
influence  of  steam  machinery,  i.  215, 
216;  of  perpetual  motion,  L  171  ;  on 
Scandinavian  politics,  Li.  243 ;  of  Tjti- 
dall,  ii.  292.  Ordnance  experiences  (see 
Guns,  Ordnance,  Oregon,  Torpedoes, 
Sub-aquatic  Attack) ;  originality,  ii. 
336.  Partnership  >\-ith  Braithwaite 
(see  Braithwaite)  ;  in  caloric  (see  Ca- 
loric) ;  in  Iro7i  Witch,  i.  160  ;  with 
J/b>(i7o/"  associates  (see  Bushnell,  Gris- 
wold,  Winslow).  Petitions  Congress 
concerning  Princeton,  L  145  ;  preju- 
dice against  drinking  habits,  ii.  311  ; 
Privy  Council  renews  propeller  pat- 
ent, L  172;  political  opinions,  i.  181, 
228;  portrait  painted  by  Elliott,  ii. 
228  ;  prepares  a  book  for  publication, 
i.  29 ;  prodigality  as  an  inventor,  i. 
158  ;  profits  on  Monitor,  i.  269  ;  pro- 
poses the  neutralization  of  the  ocean, 
ii.  88,  14S ;  proposal  to  return  to  Swe- 
den, ii.  202;  protests  against  unjust 
criticism,  i.  42,  236,  283  ;  proud  of  the 
title  of  geometrician,  i.  '224  ;  pur- 
chases barking  dogs,  iL  305;  plagi- 
arists, ii.  144 ;  quick  promotion,  L 
16 ;  quarrel  with  Sir  John  Ross,  i.  40- 
43 ;  Rainhill  contest  of  first  locomo- 
tives, L  53-66  ;  receives  Rumford  prize, 
i  218;  receives  Swedish  prize  for  ca- 


INDEX. 


345 


loric  engine,  i.  203  ;  recommends  a  re- 
peating rifle,  ii.  34 ;  refuses  to  give 
opinions  concerning  patents,  ii.  340 ; 
rejoices  that  ladies  cease  to  call,  ii  305 ; 
relations  to  United  States  Government 
(see  Government,  Monitor,  Princtton, 
Guns,  Torpedoes)  ;  remains  taken  to 
Sweden,  ii.  326-333.  Removes  to  Eng- 
land, i.  36 ;  to  United  States,  i.  104. 
Residence  at  Astor  House,  ii.  108-111  ; 
Beach  Street,  i.  114;  ii.  302-319; 
Franklin  Street,  i.  95,  113,  115  ;  ii.  220, 
302.  Resigns  as  engineer  of  Eastern 
Counties  Railroad,  i.  104  ;  ridiculed  by 
officialdom,  i.  136  ;  rivals  and  imitat- 
ors. Chapter  xxv.  ;  saves  a  fellow-pupil 
from  drowning,  i.  21  ;  Scandinavia  de- 
sires his  services,  ii.  210;  scholastic 
degrees  received,  ii.  197 ;  sells  interest 
in  caloric  engine,  i.  1S8  ;  sells  interest 
in  St.  John's  Park,  ii.  304  ;  services  to 
Sweden  (see  Sweden)  ;  skill  in  topo- 
graphical drawing,  i.  29 ;  solves  me- 
chanical difficulty  in  dream,  ii.  337; 
Spanish  gun-boats  built,  ii.  128,  129, 
130,  131,  132,  133  ;  Spartan  characteris- 
tics, i.  221,  32:2  ;  ii.  314,  315  ;  speeches, 
i.  194,  295.  Studies  conductivit}'  of 
mercury,  ii.  290 ;  Euclid,  i.  27 ;  influ- 
ence of  river  currents,  ii.  264 ;  Meca- 
nique  Celeste,  ii.  223  ;  naval  warfare,  L 
178  ;  solar  physics,  ii.  277-301  ;  strength 
of  material,  i.  137;  the  peculiarities  of 
fluids,  i.  79 ;  surjface  condensers  (see 
Surface  Condensation).  Survej's  Jemt- 
land,  i.  29 ;  Swede  of  Swedes,  i.  2 ; 
sympathy  with  weak  States,  ii.  177  ; 
testifies  to  promptness  of  Government 
in  Monitor  matter,  i.  254  ;  thanks 
voted  (see  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Con- 
gress, Swedish  Riksdag)  ;  theories  as 
to  the  sun  (see  Sun) ;  theories  con- 
ceming  moon,  ii.  294  ;  thorough  work- 
man, i.  43  ;  toothache,  suffering  from, 
i.  186 ;  torpedo  inventions  (see  De- 
stroyer and  Torpedo )  ;  tremendous 
factor  in  material  progress,  ii.  199 ;  un- 
complimentary opinions  of  United 
States,  ii.  231,  232 ;  unjust  reputation 
for  brusqueness,  ii.  216 ;  urges  build- 
ing Monitor,  i.  252;  use  of  the  regen- 
erative principle,  i.  73 ;  unwillingness 
to  accept  advice,  i.  227.  Visits  Rich- 
mond, Va.,  i.  113  ;  United  States  to  j 
introduce  screw,  i.  107,  108 ;  Washing-  ' 
ton,  L  193,  2.52.  Works  for  Quarter-  ■ 
master's  Department,  United  States ; 
Armj",  i.  ISO  ;  works  for  Revenue  Ma- 
rine Service,  i.  156,  158,  166,  180,  183; 
youthful  character  described,  i.  28,  29. 
Ericsson,  John,  characteristics  of,  i.  154, 
157, 159, 179,  194,  255,  257 ;  character  in-  ; 
herited,  i.  4  ;  culture,  i.  li>4 ;  engineering 
ability  and  methods,  i.  114,  146,  190, 
223,  326-228,  331,  257-261,  269  ;  ii.  4,  .5, 
7, 23,  111,  114, 122, 144,147,  2;«,  358,  301,  ! 
309,  313,  337 ;  ability  to  apply  theory  , 


to  practice,  L  88;  a  born  engineer,  i.  1, 
16 ;  adverse  engineering  report  on  his 
work  never  made,  ii.  187  ;  an  engineer, 
not  inventor,  i.  205 ;  independence  of 
precedent,  i.  18 ;  learns  English  meth- 
ods, i.  18 ;  mathematical  methods,  i. 
224-225,  never  proposed  mechanical 
absurdities,  i.  88  ;  not  a  mechanic,  i 
118;  opportunities  for  learning  his 
profession,  i.  18 ;  thoroughness,  i. 
135  ;  training  for  work  on  Monitor,  i. 
233  ;  habits  of  life,  i.  81,  112,  114,  228; 
ii.  232,  233,  310,  311,  312,  316,  317,  321 ; 
impetuosity  and  Berserk  temper,  i. 
32,  43,85,86,159,  179,  228,  255-2.57; 
ii.  233,  345  ;  accountability  for  anger 
discussed,  ii.  246 ;  apologies  for  hasty 
speech,  ii.  29 ;  intellectual  qualities,  i 
31,38,187,  194.  221,  231,  233,  250,  251, 
259,  261,  362,  264 ;  ii.  186,  216,  233,  243, 
294,  316,  322  ;  intellectual  ability  awes 
Professor  Mapes,  i.  233 ;  proofs  of 
genius,  i.  190 ;  ii.  5,  108,  152,  336,  337, 
338 ;  uncompromising  spirit,  i.  109 ; 
will  power,  iL  333 ;  liberality  and  in- 
diiference  to  money,  i.  116,  157,  173, 
203 ;  ii.  31,  104,  303,  223,  324,  233,  239, 
241,  255,  375,  301,  304  ;  literary  ability, 
ii  59,  394;  moral  qualities,  i  81,  113, 
154,  331,  327,  228,  233  ;  ii.  29,  31,  32,  96, 
221,  247,  252,  321  ;  magnanimity,  ii  253, 
254  (see  Patriotism);  perseverance  under 
discouragement,  i  104  ;  resolution  and 
courage,  i.  255  ;  phvsical  characteristics, 
i.  85,  86,  113,  114,  220,  228,  350,  360  ;  ii. 
323,  2.58,  306,  309,  310  ;  at  the  age  of 
twenty-one,  i.  33,  34;  at  fifty-eight,  i. 
334 ;  back  injured,  i.  25 ;  ii.  263  ;  condi- 
tion in  old  age,  ii.  309,  310;  feats  of 
strength,  i.  25,  85  ;  has  a  malignant 
pustule,  i  223  ;  hopes  to  live  a  century, 
i.  237 ;  loses  a  finger,  i  221 ;  regime 
followed,  ii.  310,  312-321  ;  prejudices 
and  predilections,  ii.  303-313 ;  religious 
opinions,  i.  185  ;  ii  230,  355,  256,  257  ; 
accepts  omniscience,  but  denies  omnip- 
otence, ii.  249 ;  believes  in  annihila- 
tion and  nirvana,  ii.  253 ;  in  Divine 
Providence,  i.  247  ;  in  a  creator  subject 
to  mechanical  laws,  ii.  249,  351  ;  church 
relations,  i.  82  ;  ii.  25.5-256 ;  sentiment, 
i  32,  116,  229,  230  ;  ii.  318,  319 
Ericsson,  John,  some  inventions,  alarm 
barometer,  i.  183  ;  engraving  machine, 
i  30,  31  ;  equipoise  rudder,  i.  174;  ex- 
pansion engine,  ii.  191  ;  file-cutting 
machine,  i.  80  ;  flame  engine,  i.  45  ;  fric- 
tion gear,  ii.  183  ;  hydraulic  reversing 
gear,  ii.  183  ;  hydrostatic  gauge,  i.  80, 
184 ;  hydrostatic  javelin,  ii.  177 ;  in- 
strument for  measuring  distances,  i. 
139,  132,  184 ;  link  motion,  i.  63,  133  ; 
obstruction  remover,  ii.  48 ;  one  hun- 
dred inventions  listed,  i.  81 ;  self-acting 
gun-lock,  i.  132 ;  pumping-engine,  i. 
39;  pyrometer,  i  184,  185;  ii  288; 
rat-trap,  ii  306 ;  salt-water  evaporator 


346 


INDEX. 


1.    70;    Bun-motors,    ii.  231,   265-277; 
eteam  fire-engine,  i.  45  ;  steam  wheel, 
i.  (is ;  twin  screws,  i.   l56 ;  water  con- 
denser, L  1 80 ;  weighing  machine,  i.  79 
Bricsson,  John,  letters  addressed  by,  to 
various  persons  :  Adlersparre,  Axel,  ii. 
131,   134,    125,    12C),   laS,   159,  161,  180, 
203,  204,  233.   238,  249.   250,  251,  252 ; 
Anton,  ii.  232 ;  Barnard,  J.  G.,  ii.  178  ; 
Blackmailer,  ii.  235 ;  Board  of  Armor- 
clads,  ii.  274;  Bourne,  John,  i.  41,  61, 
167,  240  ;  ii.   12,   67,   83,  86,   144,  145, 
148,   153,   155,   189;    bridegroom,  a.    i. 
230;  Browning,  S.  B.,  ii.  173,  192,  221  ; 
Brunei,  1.   K,   i.   75;  Builder,   The,  i. 
38,  199;  Bull,   Ole,   ii.   242;  BushneU. 
ii.    252;    Caloric    associates,     i.     199; 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  New  York,  ii. 
179 ;  Church.WilUam  C,  ii  102  ;  Chute, 
Lady,    ii.  221  ;  client,  a,  L  225  ;  Con- 
gress,    L     145,    177;    Cox,     S.   S.,    ii. 
171;  Cragin,  A.  H.,  ii.  170;  Day,  Hor- 
ace, i.  39;  Delamater,  ii.  131,  244,  24*;, 
252,  268;  Dorr.  E.  P..  i.  252;  Edison, 
concerning,  i.  205;  Judith,   concerning 
the,   i.    158 ;  Engineer,    The,   ii.    184 ; 
Engineeriiig,  -ii.     157,    277 ;     Forbes, 
R.  B.,  i.  174;  ii'.  114,  170,  183,  190,  233, 
240,  253,  254,  271  ;  Fox,   G.  V.,  L  241, 
2.54,    262:    ii.  7,  14,    22,    29,    78,    148; 
Gould,  Charles,  ii.   201 ;  Gregory,  Ad- 
miral, ii.  26,  28,  29  ;  Griswold,  John  A., 
ii.  187 ;  Hale,  Senator,  ii.  41  ;  Haswell, 
C.  H.,  i.  59;  Hazelius,  Arthur,  ii.  308; 
Henry,  Professor  Joseph,  ii.  277,  278 ; 
Horsford,  E.   N.,  i.  211;  iL  261;  Iroji 
Witch,  concerning,  i.  161 ;  Kemble,  Fan- 
ny, L  229 ;  Kitching,  J.  B.,  i.  191  ;  Jef- 
fers,  Commodore,  ii.  164,  171 ;  Lingban- 
shyttan  admirers,  iL  200,  204  ;  Langley, 
Professor  S.  P.,  ii.  281  ;  Lincoln.  Abra- 
ham, i.  246;  iL  17,  34;  Luce,  Admiral, 
i.   243 ;  Lund,    University  of,    ii.    263, 
264,  265  ;  McClellan,  General,   i.   259 ; 
Malcampo,  ii.  132 ;  AlUes,  ii.  247 ;  Mon- 
itors,  concerning,   iL  06 ;  mother,  his, 
i.  26,  27,  115;  Mrs.  Mapes,  iL  2.53;  Na- 
poleon III.,  L  240-241 ;  Aatiirc,  ii.  275; 
naval  secretaries,  L   141,  142,   143;  iL 
11,  24,  25,  27,  69,  93, 162,  168,  181,  2.54  ; 
niece,  a,  ii.  202;  Oscar  II.,  ii.  172,  195  ; 
Pastor  of  Gustaf  Adolph  Church,  ii. 
2.%;    Patent  OfiBce,    London,    iL    80; 
Paulding,  Admiral,  iL  14  ;  Prince  Al- 
bert, L  184;  Robinson,  J.    A.,  ii.  273; 
Rosen,  Von,  A.   E,  ii.  237;  Ross,  Sir 
John,  i.  42;  Royal  Library,  Stockholm, 
ii.  227;  Royal  Society,  London,  iL  277; 
Russian  minister,  ii.  172 ;  Sargent,  John 
O.,  i.  107,  118,  120,  121,  149,  151,  159, 
160,    166,   179,   181.  186,  187,  19.5,  1%, 
211,  224,  236,  237  ;  ii.  186,  205,  2.;6,  302  ; 
i)cie7itijic  American,  The,  i.  191;  Seward, 
W.  H.,  ii.  5j  122;  Stevenson,  George, 
concerning,  i.  ,57;  Smith,  Commodore, 
i.  266,  269,  274  ;  Stockton,  R.  F.,  i.  108, 
119.  123,  141 ;  Stoughton,  Mrs.,  i.  206; 


Stonghton,  Tyler,  and  Bloodgood,  i. 
199,  221;  Swedish  relatives,  L  14,  2l5, 
217  ;  iL  212,  217,  219,  222,  224,  225,  229, 
275,  276;  temperance,  ii.  311;  Times, 
London,  i.  215  ;  United  States,  concern- 
ing, ii.  231 ;  Virginia  legislature,  L  194  ; 
Wealeyan  University,  iL  197 ;  Wise, 
Henry  A.,  iL  140  ;  Woodcroft,  Bennett, 
L  102 ;  iL  80,  185 

Ericsson's  ancestors,  i  3 

"  Ericsson's  FoUy,"  name  given  to  Jfoni 
tor,  i.  255 

Ericsson's  mother,  L  5,  17,  23 

Ericsson,  Nils,  L  3,  4,  7,  8,  9,  14,  15,  17, 
18,  21,  22.  23,  203  ;  ii.  126,  208,  209,  210, 
212.  213,  219,  220,  224,  33t; ;  chapter 
XXX.  ;  his  sons,  ii.  39,  112,  23:^,  227 

Ericsson  Olof,  L  1,  2,  3,  4,  7,  8,  9,  10,  14, 
15,  16,  17,  20,  21,  35;  iL  208,  227,  319, 
336 

Ericsson  propeller  line,  i.  109, 110 ;  Erics- 
son's son  (see  Elworth)  ;  Ericsson's 
wife,  L  1J3,  292,  294  ;  ii.  219,  220 ;  de- 
scribed, L  115  ;  visits  New  York,  L 
116;  congratulates  her  husband  on  suc- 
cess of  Monitor,  i.  293  ;  iL  113 

Ethical  objections  to  steam  engine,  L  215, 
216 

European  politics  discussed,  i.  220;  af- 
fected by  Jfonitor,  L  241 

Evans,  Oliver,  ii.  259 

Evarts,  William  M.,  iL  130 

Evenijig  Herald,  The,  of  Syracuse, 
quoted,  ii.  96 

Evening  Tost,  The,  N.  Y.,  uses  caloric 
engine,  i.  203 

Expansion  engine  utilizing  full  power  of 
steam,  iL  191 

Experimenting,  complication  not  re- 
garded in,  i.  42 ;  should  not  be  con- 
founded with  practical  work,  i.  236, 
283 ;  money  wasted  on  in  England,  ii 
113 

Explosive  force  expression  of  power,  ii. 
216 

Explosive  forces,  study  of,  ii.  134 

F.iLT  Z.\OAR  regiment,  iL  324 

Family  interests,  influence  of,  on  public 

affairs,  ii.  81 
Famine  in  Sweden  relieved,  iL  228,  229 
Fanaticism  of  genius,  ii.  3:i8 
Fan-blower  system  first  used,  L  70 
Faraday's  belief  in  regenerative  principle, 

L  210;  lecture  on  caloric  engine,  i.  75 
Faralones,    Massachusetts    re-christened 

as,  i.  159 
Faxon.  W.,  L  251 
Fell  railroad  anticipated,  i.  183 
Fifteen-inch  gun,  i.  303 
File-cutting  machine,  i.  80 
Filipstad,    inhabitants   of,    erect  rnonu* 

ment,    iL    200-204 ;    burial    there,    ii. 

331 
Financial  experiences,  i.  16,  27,  29,  36, 

37,  92,  99,   108,  14;^,   157,  161,  166,  181, 

188,  196,  200,  301,  269  ;  iL  211,  307,  33i 


INDEX. 


347 


Financial  statement  of  propeller  (patent), 

i.  99 
Finger,  loss  of  a,  i.  221 

Fires,  old  methods  of  extinguishing,  i. 
44-47 ;  destructive  effects  of,  in  London, 
i.  45 

Fire-engine  described  by  Hero,  i.  46 ; 
Steam  (the  first),  i.  45-48 ;  prize  for,  i. 
106 

Firemen  of  monitors,  ignorance  of,  ii.  54 

Fitch,  inventor  of  steam  engine,  ii.  259 

Fitchburg  Railroad,  Massachusetts,  uses 
caloric  engines,  i.  203 

"  Flag,  Preble's  History  of  the, "  ii.  330 

Flame  engine,  i.  34,  37,  38,  71,  184,  212 

Fleet  Prison,  incarceration  in,  i.  92 

Fluid  meter,  i.  183 

Flying  Devil,  sailor's  name  for  first  screw 
propeller,  i.  89 

Forbes,  Robert  B. ,  i.  158 ;  correspondence 
with,  i  174;  ii  115,  170,  183,  190,  213, 
233,  240,  271 ;  invests  in  Iron  Witch, 
i.  160 ;  opinion  of  Ericsson,  i.  162 ; 
"  Reminiscences  "  quoted,  i.  159,  160. 

Foreign  intervention  prevented  by  the 
Monitor,  ii.  219,  220 

Foreigners,  military  commissions  be- 
stowed upon,  i.  234 

Foreign  powers  order  monitors,  ii.  75,  76 

Forsvik,  home  of  Ericsson  family,  i.  10 

Fort  Fisher,  Monitor's  attack  on,  ii.  58, 
59, 137 

Fortifications  not  needed,  ii.  175 

Forts,  broadside  and  turret  vessels  in  at- 
tacking, ii.  48 

Forts,  monitors  not  intended  to  attack, 
ii.  45,  46,  48,  49,  100 

Fox,  Gustavus  Vasa,  i.  249,  253,  254,  277, 
287,  298  ;  ii.  2,  3,  6,  34,  36,  41,  45,  67,  83, 
118,  229,  237,  258,  313 ;  ablest  man  of 
Lincoln's  administration,  i.  278 ;  asks 
for  light-draught  monitors,  ii.  21,  22 ; 
condemns  them,  ii.  28,  30,  33  ;  confi- 
dence in  Ericsson  and  the  monitors,  ii. 
4,  8,  9,  77 ;  conversion  to  Ericsson's 
ideas,  i.  277,  278  ;  correspondence  with, 
i.  241,  254,  262,  278,  279  ;  ii.  4,  7,  22,  62, 
77,  78,  148,  166;  originates  scheme  for 
capturing  Charleston,  ii.  124 ;  patriot- 
ism and  integrity,  ii.  78  ;  sent  to  Rus- 
sia, ii.  77;  testifies  to  value  ot  Moni- 
tor, ii.  21,  63 

Fox,  Mrs.,  invited  to  christen Z)ic<a/o»* 
ii.  14 

Fox,  Sir  Charles,  rides  with  Ericsson  on 
the  Novelty,  i.  56 ;  congratulates  him 
on  his  Monitor,  i.  292 

Francis  B.  Ogden,  first  screw  vessel,  i.  88 

Frankland,  Professor,  on  moon,  ii.  301 

Franklin  Street,  residence  at,  i.  95,  113, 
115;  ii.  220,  302 

Frazer's  Magazine  on  the  Rainhill  trial, 
L  56 

Freeboard,  low,  advantage  of,  ii.  78,  92, 
110 

Friction-gear  applied  to  gun-carriages,  i. 
143,  144 


Friendships,  i.  81 ;  Chaps,  xiv. ,  xxxiv. 
"Frithiof  Saga"  quoted,  ii.  216 
Frith  wrought-iron  gun,  ii.  136 
Fuller,  Thomas,  quoted,  ii.  246 
Fulton,  Robert,  and  Ericsson,  i.  191,  192  ; 
and  the  steamboat,  i.  40,  86,  173 ;  bur- 
ial-place,  ii.  324  ;  steam  war  vessels,  i. 
105  ;  torpedo  experiments,  ii.  148,  151, 
152,  159 
Funeral  of  Ericsson,  the,  ii.  253,  324-332 

Galley  Slaves,  modern,  ii.  89. 
Gansevoort,    Guert,    reports    on   13-inch 

gun,  ii.  138 
Garfield,  President  James  A.,  ii.  169 
Gas  to  supersede  steam,  i.  207 
Gearing  for  engines  discarded,  i.  165 
Geijer  born  in  Vermland,  i.  5 
Geometrician,  proud  of  the  title,  i.  224 
Genius  of  Ericsson,  i.  190 ;  ii.  5, 108,  152, 

336-38 
Georgetovra  College,  Father  Secchi,  pro- 
fessor in,  ii.  286 
German,  knowledge  of,  i.  224 
GiUmore,  General,  Q.  A.,  ii.  47 
Gladstone,  Lieutenant,  R.N.,  reports  on 

Destroyer,  ii.  175 
Glazebrook  u.ses  regenerator  in  1797,   i. 

71 
Goliath  of  Gath  and  the  Monitor,  i.  300 
Gota    Canal,    employment    of    Ericsson 
upon,  i.  1.5,  22,  29,  31,  40,  208,  233 ;  ii. 
121,  208,  219  ;  history  of,  i.  10-13 
Gould,  Charles,  i.  295  ;  ii.  260 
Government,    its  confidence  in  Ericsson, 
ii.  1,  2,  5,  7,  8,  9,  22,  73,  234 ;  his  unjust 
treatment  by,  i.  122,  150,  179,  256,  267, 
268,  270,  273,  275  ;  ii.  96,  139,  166,  168, 
205  ;  its  interest  sacrificed  to  conceit  of 
office,  i.  235 
Grant,  U.  S.,  i.  278,  ii.  123,  125,  161 
Great  Eastern  fitted  with  screw,  i.  163 ; 
compared    with   caloric   ship,   i,    192 ; 
reaches  limit  of  size,  ii.  141 
Great  Mechanician,  belief  in  the,  i,  185; 

ii.  249,  254 
Great  Republic,  towed  by  Ericsson's  tug, 

i.  163 
Great  Westerii,  steamer,  L  104,  164 
Greece,  proper  armament  for,  ii.  124 
Greek,  Ericsson's  knowledge  of,  L  224 
Greene,    Confederate    General,     attacks 

Monitor,  ii.  21 
Griswold   John   A.,  i.    249-251,   252-257, 

270-298;  ii.  187,  302 
Gun  and  armor,  struggle  between,  i.  244  ; 

ii.  152 
Gunboats  for  defence,  ii.  123,  124,  125, 

180 
Guns,  ancient,  early  models  of,  ii.  136; 
Armstrong,  defects  of,  ii.  140;  banded, 
early  use  of,  i.  130,  131 ;  breeching  for, 
ii.  lo(i ;  carriages  for,  i.  131 ;  ii.  141,  142, 
145,  146;  cast  iron,  record  of,  ii.  136; 
days  of  monster  guns  numbered,  ii.  165; 
English  and  American,  ii.  78 ;  15-incli 
service,  record  of,  ii.  137 ;  heavy,  rec 


348 


INDEX. 


ommended  by  EricsBon  and  opposed 
by  Dahlp-en,  iL  134,  1S6,  137;  Horsfall, 
ii.  i;>o;  loaded  below  deck,  first  ex- 
ample of,  ii.  157;  of  Nelson's  Victory, 
ii.  149  ;  powders  and  projectiles  for,  iL 
149  ;  13-inch,  trial  of,  described,  ii.  138, 
139;  li-inch,  on  Prinrttou,  i.  123;  iL 
134,  135,  i:ifi;  22-inch,  iL  141  ;  Parrott, 
for  Spanish  gunboats,  ii.  12S  ;  presented 
to  Sweden,  iL  76 ;  self-acting  lock  for, 
L  12*J,  132;  steel,  iL  127,  139;  sub- 
marine, ii.  175,  177;  waste  of  money 
upon  English  experiments,  ii.  141  ; 
weight  of  modern,  ii.  137 
Gustavus  Vasa  originates  Gota  Canal,  Lll 

Uaxe,  Senator,  Chairman  Naval  Com- 
mittee, iL  40 

Halleck,  General,  ii.  77 

Hamilton  and  the  Federalists,  L  1.56 

Hampton  Roads,  naval  engagement  in,  i. 
27t)-;301,  3(.i2 

Harbors,  how  to  defend,  ii.  102,  179 

Hare,  Robert,   receives  Rumford  medal, 
i.  217 

Harold,  the  fair-haired,  i.  6 

Harrison,  Elias,  testimony  as  to  invention 
of  screw,  i.  98 

Harrison,  President  Benjamin,  iL  322 

Hartford    Titties  uses  caloric   engine,    i. 
303 

Hartmann's   "  Philosophy  of  the  Uncon- 
scious," iL  337 

Harvey's  theory  of  circulation  of  blood,  i.  ■ 
fi3 

Harvey  torpedo,  the,  ii.  159 

Hawse-pipe  of  jtfotutor,  L  283;  ii.  10 

Hayden's  hatred  of  "t'will-never-doists," 
L"91 

Hayes,  President  R.  B.,  ii.  194 

Headley's  miner  boj',  ii.  238 

Healthfulness  of  monitors,  iL  65 

Heat  applied    to   engines,  L    184;    erro- 
neous theories    concerning,  i.  85,    208  ; 
theories  of  Aristotle.  L75  ;  Bacon,  i.  7<) ;  1 
of  Regnault,  Joule,   Maver,   Rumford, 
Tyndall,    L   76,    2(,t7,    2CfS,    211  ;    their  ' 
tables  revised,  i.  212  ; 

Hell,  Hindoo  estimate  of  its  duration,  ii. 
2C4  I 

H.rbert,  Lord,  loses  a  son  on   H.  M.    S. 
Ciint'iin^  ii.  Ill  ! 

Her-ditv,  law  of,  illustrated,  ii.  208 

Hermit'life,  ii.  302-19 

Heroism,  noble  example  of,  iL  52 

Hersshel,  Sir  John,  ii.  284,  2S5,  287-295, 
2%,  21t9 

High  living  and  hard   drinking  in   Eng- 
land, L  88 

Holidays,  neglect  of,  i.  181 

Holler's  "  Ordnance  and  Armor  "  quoted, 
ii.  f36 

Hone's,  Philip.  "Diar>',"  i  94, 101  ;  ii.  246 

Honors   bestowed  upon  Ericsson,  L  184, 
221,  290,  296;  ii.  l'.»4-204 

Horace  quoted,  ii.  249 

Horn,  Jan,  becomes  Yngatrom,  i.  4 


Horsford,  E.  N.,  iL  261,  262;  faTorsgiv. 

ing  Ericsson   Rumford   medal,    i.   211, 

218  ;  admiration  of  caloric   engine,   L 

213 
Hot-air  principle,  difficulties  in  applving, 

L  193,  198,  r.»9,  200,  209 ;  to  supersede 

steam,  201,  21*7,  214  (^see  also  Calonc) 
Houston,  President  of  Texas,  i.  1.52 
Hudson  River  Railroad  buys  St  John's 

Park,  ii.  3W 
Hudson,  torpedo  experiments  on   the,  ii. 

163 
Hugo,  Victor,  his  story  of  an  escaped  gun, 

iL  142 
Hunt,  Freeman,  commends  caloric  ship, 

i.  191 
Hunting  condemned,  i.  225 
Hydraulic  engineering,  revolution  in,  ii. 

192 
Hydraulic  lift  for  Monitor,  ii.  96 
Hydraulic   reversing  gear,    early  use  of, 

ii.  185 
Hydrostatic   gauge,  L  80,  184  ;  weighing 

machine,  i.  79 

IGXOR.4XCE,    Naval,    i.    276 ;    Ericsson's 

chief  enemy,  ii.  185 
Illiberality  of  Government,  ii.  37 
Immortality,    disbelief  in,   iL    250,  251, 

2.52,  256,  257 
Income  and  fortune,  iL  222 
Inconsistency  of  human  nature,  ii.  307 
Individuality  destroyed  by  machinery,  i. 

21.5,  216 
Industry  commended,  ii.  225 
Injustice,    vigorous  denunciation    of,    i. 

236 
Inventor,    title  of,    disclaimed,    i.    205 ; 

treatment  of,  by  Ericsson,  ii.  216 
Inventory'  of  Ericsson's  estate,  ii.  333 
Iron  for  naval  vessels  first  suggested,  i. 

24;5-244 
Irving,  Washington,  dines  with  Ericsson, 

L  194 
Iron  Witch,  the,  L  114,  160-162,  166 
Isabella  the  Catholic,  Order  of,  ii.  133 

Jackson,  General  Stonewall,  iL  184 
James  River  Canal,  builds  propellers  for, 

L  113  _ 

Javelm,  hydrostatic,  ii.  1 1  < 
JeflFerv's  respirator  in  the  hot-air  engine, 

L  ?2 
Jemtland    described,   L    27,   28;   experi- 
ences  in.  i.    24,  29,  2;« ;  ii.  121,  239 ; 

memories  of,  ii.  237,  320 
Jenkin    Professor,  approves  regenerative 

principle,  i.  208 
Judith,  the,  fitted  with  monitor  engines, 

L  255 
Jupiter   and   Saturn,  temperature  of,  iL 

285 

Karlstad,  gjTnnasium  of,  i.  3 
Kemble,  Fanny,  letter  to.  i.  229 
Kinbum,  armored  vessels  used  at,  i.  275 
Kitching,  John  B.,  L  189,  191,  198 


index: 


349 


Knights  of  old  and  monitors,  ii.  55  Lowell,  James  Russell,  u.  338 

Kxapotkin,  Prince,  on  ethical  objections    Lund   University,    bi-centennial   of,    ii. 
to  steam  engines,  i.  216  265 


Labor-saving  machines  destroy  individ- 
uaUty,  i.  215,  216 

Ladies  cease  to  visit  Ericsson,  ii.  305 

Laird  >fc  Sons',  sliip-builders,  association 
with  Ericsson,  i.  69,  70,  it2,  95 ;  ii  109, 
131 

Lakes,  American,  first  use  of  propeller 
on,  i.  108;  of  Sweden,  L  6,  8.  10,  11, 
18,  23,  27 ;  rafts  on,  suggest  Monitor, 
i.  233 

Laminated  armor  superseded,  i.  104 

Lander's  vessel  for  exploring  Niger,  i.  95 

Land  turrets,  Russian,  i.  178 

Langbanshyttan,  i.  1,  7,  14;  ii.  200,  204, 
210,  318 

Langley,  Professor  S.  P.,  ii.  291,  293; 
opinion  of  Ericsson's  scientific  work, 
ii.  279 

Laplace's  theories  contradicted,  ii.  287 

Laplanders  in  North  Sweden,  L  28 

Lardner,  Dionysius,  i.  147,  166,  167,  176, 
177 

Lassoe.  V.  R,  ii  306.  333,  335,  336 

Latitudes,  high,  influence  on  tempera- 
ment, i  32 

Lawyers,  friendships  with,  i.  231 

Lay  torpedo,  the,  ii.  159 

League  Island  as  a  harbor  for  monitors, 
ii  103 

Legal  claim  in  Princeton  matter,  i  145 

Legislature  of  New  York  votes  thanks,  ii. 
107;  authorizes  a  monument,  ii.  324 

Library,  Ericsson's,  i.  223,  224  ;  the  royal, 
of  Stockholm,  contribution  to.  ii.  227 

Life-boats,  monitors  as,  ii.  67  (see  Moni- 
tors) 

Light  draught  monitors,  disgraceful  his- 
tory of,  ii.  8,  20-;J3  (see  Monitors) 

Light  on  board  Jfonitor,  ii.  G8 

Light- houses,  use  of  caloric  engine  in,  i. 
204 

Liliputians  and  Gulliver,  ii.  213 

Lincoln,  President,  i  234,  24.5,  249,  278, 
287,  290 ;  appoints  board  on  armor- 
clads,  ii  246;  his  interest  in  Jfonitor, 
ii  2 ;  letters  to,  i  247 ;  ii.  2,  17^  34 

Ling's  system  of  gymnastics,  i  25 

Linguistic  abilities",  i.  214,  224 

Link  motion,  first  use  of,  i  62,  133 

Lissa,  battle  of.  ii.  157 

Livingston  vault,  Fulton's  burial-place, 
ii.  324 

Lock  for  gun,  self-acting,  i.  129,  132 

Locomotives  first  tried  on  the  Liverpool 
4  Manchester  Railway,  i.  52,  54,  62,  64, 
65, 182  (see  Novelty)  ;  early  profession- 
al hostility  to,  i.  53 ;  speed  of,  i  64, 
65 

Levering,  Joseph,  opposes  award  of  Rum- 
ford  medal,  i.  218 

Lowe  claims  the  screw,  i.  171 

Lowrey,  G.  P.,  Counsel  for  Cuban  Junta, 
ii.  130 


McAllister,  Fort,  during  the  capture 
of  the  Xashville,  ii.  58 

MacCord,  Professor,  ii  306,  313,  316,334; 
articles  on  Ericsson,  i.  255,  256,  257 ; 
ii.  199 

McClellan,  General  George  B.,  i  153,  259, 
286,  287,  299 ;  ii.  98 

Machinery  emancipates  man  from  domi- 
nation by  nature,  ii.  2.59 

Machinery,  intrusted  to  ignorant  officers, 
i.  2S2  ;  of  caloric  ship,  ii.  193 

Maelstroms  en  the  Moon,  ii.  298 

Magee,  Rufus,  letters  concerning  Erics- 
sou's  interment,  ii.  325 

Manhattan  Bank,  account  with,  i.  156, 
157,  188 

Manuscript  left  bv  Ericsson,  quoted,  i.  58 

Markoe,  Dr.  T.  M.,  i  222;  ii.  322,  323 

Marble  bust,  by  Kneeland,  i  157 

Malignant  pustule,  sutl'ers  from,  i.  222 

Mallet  compressor,  anticipated,  ii.  146 

Mallory,  S.  R. ,  Confederate  Naval  Secre- 
tary, recommends  armed  vessels,  i  245 

Mansfield,  General,  i  290,  291 

Mapes,  Professor  James  J.,  i.  133,  147, 
191,  222,  223,  232,  291 ;  ii.  252,  253 

Marqius  of  Worcester,  i  153  ;  ii.  238 

2I<trmora,  twin  screws  appUed  to  the,  i. 
156 

Marriage,  opinion  concerning,  ii  224,225, 
230 ;  to  Amelia  Byam,  i.  82 ;  ii  219 

Maritime  warfare  of  the  future,  ii.  88 

Marshal  of  the  United  States  seizes  the 
Spanish  gun-boats,  ii.  129 

Maskelyne  measures  density  of  earth,  ii. 
278 

Massach  imettx,  the  auxiliary  screw  steam- 
er, i  159,  160,  163,  164,  iOo,  179 

Mathematical  formulas,  unnecessary  use 
of,  ii  73 

Matricularii  of  Rome,  i  44 

''Mc-canique  Celeste,"  favorite  study,  ii 

22;b 

Mechanic,  an  ingenious,  i.  118 

Jfechanics'  Afagazine  concerning  screw 
propeller  patents,  i.  172 

Mechanical  absurdities  never  proposed, 
i  88 

Mechanical  defence  for  weak  nations,  ii. 
121 

Mechanical  laws  do  not  admit  of  a  cre- 
ator, ii.  251 

Melloni's  theories  combated,  IL  283,  289 

Melville,  Lord,  ii.  151 

Mercury,  conductivity  of,  studied,  ii.  290 

Merrimac  and  Monitor  fight,  i  280;  dis- 
appointing result  of.  i  283  (see  Mei-ri- 
mac  and  jfotiitor')  ;  ii.  258 

Meter,  fluid,  i  1  S3,  184;  spirit,  ii.  198 

Meteorological  studies,  ii.  290 

Mexico,  Napoleon  III.'s  projects  in,  ii. 
219 ;  transports  demanded  daring  war 
with,  i.  159 


350 


INDEX. 


Midas  twin  screw  propeller,  i.  158 
Miles,  General  N.  A.,  ii.  109,  194,  240 
Military  man,  Ericsson  as  a,  ii.  '20 
Military  service,  number  of  men  in,  iL  42 
Mills,  J.  K.,  invests  in  Jron  Witch,  i.  ItiO 
Milton  admired,  i.  -'67 
Minotaur  or  Monitor,  i.  289 
Misfortunes  of  Ericsson  family,  i.  9 
Mississippi  River,  influence  of,  on  earth's 

rotation,  ii.  264 
Models  of  machines,  number  of,  i.  182 
Money,  waste  of,  during  civil  war,  ii.  43 ; 
in  naval  experiments,  by  England,  iL 
247 
Monitor  and  Merrimac  fight,  the,  i.  284, 
ase,  299;  ii.  ol3,  315;  dissatisfaction 
with  result  of,  i.  2S8,  298  ;  Ericsson's 
death  on  anniversary  of,  ii.  322 
Monitor,  the  original,  i.  L'33-;501 ;  ii.  313, 
323  ;  battle  test  required  before  accept- 
ance of,  i.  273;  behavior  of,  at  sea,  i.  281; 
changes  made  ia,  ii.  9  ;  commendations 
of,  ii.  200;  compared  with  caloric  ship,  i. 
1^ ;  congratulations  following  success 
of,  i.  290-297 ;  constructed  in  one  hun- 
dred days,  ii.  2  ;  crystallization  of  forty 
centuries  of  thought,  L  289  ;  Ericsson's 
account  of,  i.  252  ;  early  conceptions  of, 
i.  '2:i7,  240,  249,  2(2  ;  equal  to  fifty  thou- 
sand men,  i.  280  ;  establishes  a  type,  i. 
289 ;  heavier  charges  for  guns  advised,  ii. 
137;  history  of,  L  248,  251  ;  ii.  3;  how 
time  was  saved  in  building,  i.  200; 
leaves  New  York  for  Washington,  L 
279,  280,  28:3 ;  motive  for  building,  i. 
242,  247;  never  improved  upon,  i.  262; 
patentable  inventions  in,  i.  201  ;  remu- 
neration for,  declined,  ii.  96 ;  revolu- 
tionized naval  warfare,  L  288 ;  rush  of 
proposals  for,  ii.  3 
Monitors,  battle  record  of,  ii.  53-65,  69  ; 
casualties  on,  ii.  01  ;  compared  with 
turret  ships,  ii.  109  ;  condition  of,  after 
war,  ii.  102,  103;  criticisms  of,  i.  235  ; 
ii  3.  32,  54  ;  description  of,  ii  8  ;  float- 
ing batteries,  ii.  55 ;  healthf ulness  of,  ii. 
65  ;  influence  of,  on  modern  navies,  ii. 
55,  92,  97  ;  not  designed  to  attack  forts, 
ii.  45  ;  not  clever  makeshifts,  ii.  99 ; 
Paxsaic  class,  ii.  3-6,  8,  15,  19,  20,  21 ,  37, 
55,  58,  G«).  74,  75,  93  ;  a  portentous  spec- 
tacle in  England,  i.  202 ;  ii.  84 ;  pro- 
pelled by  oars,  ii.  122,  123;  rejected 
•  names  for,  ii.  6  ;  sea-going  qualities  of, 
iL  3,  66-71,  78,  79,  96,97,  '.»9;  testimonials 
to  the  value  of,  iL  51,  70.  77,  80,  84,  iS5, 
100,  101  ;  to  be  fought  end  on,  ii.  96 ; 
versus  battle-ships,  iL  98,  102 ;  wanted 
by  foreign  powers,  ii.  75  (see  Armor- 
clads  and  Vessels  U.  S.  Navy) 
Monitors  Dictator  and  Puritan,  i.  87  ;  ii. 
8-12,  10,  17,  21,  24, :«,  37-11.  66-68,  91, 
92,  94,  107.  144,  185,  186,  298;  as  sea 
boats,  ii.  67 ;  compared  with  foreign 
iron-clads,  16  ;  cost  of,  39,  43;  Dictator 
goes  into  commission,  1.5 ;  difficulties 
attending  cooBtruction  of,  10  ;  draught 


I  of,  14  ;  influence  on  foreign  naval  con- 
struction, 17;  launch  of,  13,  14;  never 
in  battle,  17;  power  of,  18;  sjieed  of, 
16;  supplementary  specifications  for, 
37 ;  ten  years  after  completion,  18 

Monroe  doctrine,  the.  iL  18 

Monroe,  James,  President,  i.  198  ;  ii  324 

Monument  at  Langbansbyttan,  ii  200- 
204 

Moon,  atmosphere  of,  ii.  2^*7 ;  a  well- 
watered  planet,  ii.  295,  299,  301  ;  gla- 
ciers on,  ii.  2*.'6,  297 ;  hydraulic  action 
on,  iL  297,  298 ;  lava  cones  on,  ii.  299 ; 
mass  of,  ii.  299 ;  mountains  on  the,  iL 
29.5-299  ;  opinions  concerning,  294-301 ; 
snow  on.  ii.  298  ;  surface  of.  as  seen  by 
earth-light,  iL  301 ;  theories  concern- 
I  ing,  presented  in  letter  to  Nature,  ii 
I  294  ;  temperature  of  i  294-296,  299 ; 
warm  springs  on,  ii.  299 

Morehead,  Senator  John,  letter  to,  con- 
cerning Princeton,  L  147 

Morgan  and  Sccor,  ii.  18(i 

Morner,  Count  AxeL,  ii.  223 

Morse  and  the  telegraph,  i.  173 

Mouchot's  solar  engine,  iL  2<>8,  271 

Mount  Cenis  Railroad,  the,  anticipated,  i. 
78 

Muscle-power  superseded  by  steam-pow- 
er, i.  49 

Napoleon  HI.,  L  14, 18,  349,  258,  275  ;  u. 
87,  112,  116,  146,  149, 153,  155,  158,  163, 
176,   184,  219,  240,  241  ;  adopts  armor 
defence,  L  244  ;  rejects  Monitor,  i.  241 
Nast,  Thomas,  letter  to,  ii.  240,  247 
Xature  (the  newspaper),  ii.  278,  293,  294 
Nautical  problems,  mastery  of,  iL  111 
Naval  antagonisms  encountered,  i   106, 
237  ;  ii.  71,  88,  106, 152,  177;  opposition 
to  monitors,  iL  4,  10,  62,  92-95 
Naval  construction,  conditions  and   ten- 
dencies of,  ii.  88;  influence  of  Monitor 
upon,  iL  55 
Naval  defence  of  Scandinavia,  ii.  210 
Naval  engagements,  casualties  during,  ii. 
61  ;  to  be  settled  at  close  quarters,  i.  156 
Naval  hostility  to  innovation,  iL  307 
Naval  Ignorance  of  iron-clads.  i.  282,  283 
Naval  oSicers,  British,  lost  on   H.  M.  S. 

Captain,  ii.  Ill 
Naval   ofiBcers,    conservatism   of,    i.  106, 
237  ;  iL  63,  71,  8t),  89, 106,  152,  177,  199, 
302 ;     modem   development  of,  iL   89 ; 
opinion  of,  i.  I'M 
Naval   Secretarj'   generally    a    politician, 
dominated  by  professional  dogmatism, 
L  106 
Naval  steamer.  oflFer  to  build  one  in  five 

months  ridiculeii,  L  237 
Naval  system,  fatal  defects  of  our,  L  276 
Naval  vessels,    incompatible    conditions 

required  for,  ii.  54 
Navies  of  world   revolutionized  by    gun 

ordnance,  ii.  135 
Navigation,  attempt  to  apply  caloric  en- 
gine to.  i.  207 


INDEX. 


851 


Navy,  Austrian,  Gemse,  iL  176 ;  Seehnnd, 
ii.  176 

Navy,  British,  Amphion,  i.  138, 156, 165 ; 
ii  82 ;  Bellerophoti,  ii.  15,  57,  79,  91 ; 
Black  Prince,  i.  24o  ;  ii.  16  ;  Captain, 
ii.  109,  113 ;  Defence,  i.  243  ;  ii.  17  ; 
Devastation,  ii.  107,  108,  158 ;  Erebiis, 
i.  260  ;  Impregnable,  ii.  61 ;  Inflexible, 
ii  92,  170,  171;  Lord  Clyde,  ii  79; 
Oberon,  ii.  176  ;  Plantagenet,  ii.  1.51 ; 
Rattler,  i  16-t  ;  Resistayice,  i.  17,  243  ; 
Royal  Oak,  i.  243;  ii.  17;  Royal  Sov- 
ereign, ii  107,  108;  Scorpion,  ii  107; 
Terror,  i.  260 ;  Thunderer,  ii.  92,  107, 
108  ;  Thunderbolt,  i.  260  ;  Warrior,  i 
243,  275,  291  ;  ii.  4,  15,  16  ;  Wyvern,  ii. 
107 ;  officers  of,  mentioned :  Belcher, 
Sir  Edward,  ii  183  ;  Beresford,  Lord, 
ii  164  ;  Clayton,  Richard,  i  163  ;  Cock- 
burn,  Sir  George,  i.  164;  Coles,  Cow- 
per,  ii  81,  108,  109,  110,  111,  112,  113, 
114,  118;  Dundonald,  Earl  of,  ii  112; 
Hay,  Sir  John,  i  245 ;  Hobart  Pasha, 
ii  174 ;  Holloway,  Admiral,  ii.  151  ; 
Noble,  Captein,  ii.  149  ;  Parry,  Sir  E., 
i  164  ;  Robinson,  Spencer,  ii.  98  ;  Ross, 
Sir  John,  i  41-43;  Scott,  Captain,  ii. 
143,  144 

Navy,  British,  a  byword,  ii.  108 ;  influ- 
enced by  Monitor  idea,  ii  81,  91  (see 
Monitor) 

Navy,  Confederate,  officers  and  vessels 
mentioned :  Alabama,  i  300 ;  ii.  100  ; 
Albemarle,  ii.  62,  88 ;  Arkansas,  ii.  21, 
62;  Atlarita,  ii.  59,  61,  62,  99;  Brooke, 
JohnM.,  i.  246;  Buchanan,  Admiral,  i 
283;  Chattahoovhie,  ii.  62;  Chicora, 
ii  59  ;  Florida,  ii.  100 ;  Jones,  Catesby, 
i.  284,  286,  287,  300,  303;  Louisiana, 
ii  62;  Merrimac  or  Virginia,  i.  242, 
246,  251,  271,  278,  287,  289,  296,  299, 
300,  301 ;  ii.  3,  4,  5,  10,  31,  44,  62,  97, 
206;  Mississippi,  ii.  62;  Nashville,  ii. 
58,  123  ;  Palmetto  State,  ii.  59 ;  Porter, 
John  L.,  i.  246,  287  ;  Tennessee,  ii.  51, 
60,  62,  99 ;  WiUiamson,  W.  P. ,  i.  246 

Navy,  Congressional  treatment  of  the,  i 
178  ;  extraordinary  progress  of,  during 
war,  ii.  IS ;  intended  for  fighting  only, 
ii  89 

Navj^  Department,  dealings  with,  i.  142, 
143,  145,  193,  235,  236,  254 ;  ii.  158 ;  or- 
ders concerning  removal  of  Ericsson's 
remains,  ii  32i),  327,  328,  332 

Navy,  French,  Couronne,  i.  243  ;  Devas- 
tation, i  243;  Invincible,  i.  243;  La 
Oloire.i.  243,  275;  La  Normandie,  i. 
243;  Lave,  i.  243;  Pomone,  i  138; 
Tonnante,  i  243 ;   Trehourt,  ii.  92 

Navy,  German,  BasilUsk,  ii.  176 

Navy,  Italian,  ii.  153 ;  Catenat,  ii  176 ; 
Dayidolo,  ii  107,  153,  171  ;  Duilio,  ii 
92,  153 ;  Italia,  ii.  153 ;  Lepanto,  iL 
153;  Re  d' Italia,  ii.  11 ;   Tripoli,  i.  176 

Navy,  South  American,  Esmeralda,  ii. 
91  ;  Hncuicar,  ii.  11,  173 ;  Independ- 
encia,  ii.  11 


Navy,  Spanish,  officers  and  vessels  men- 
tioned: Aragou,  Raphael  de,  ii.  127, 
132,  133 ;  Arbor,  Captain  del,  i.  133  ; 
Malcampo,  Admiral,  ii.  127,  132,  133 ; 
Rodos,  de,  i  131 ;  Tornado,  ii.  146 

Navy,  Swedish,  John  Ericsson,  ii.  76 

Navy  of  the  United  States,  vessels  men- 
tioned :  Ashuelot,  Li.  78  ;  Augusta,  ii.  78, 
79  ;  Brooklyn,  ii.  51 ;  Catskill,  ii.  61 ; 
Chimo,  ii  27 ;  Comanche,  ii.  19 ;  Con- 
gress, ii.  10 ;  Cumberland,  i.  271,  280, 
291,  297,  301  ;ii  10,  315;  Currituck, 
i.  279 ;  Essex,  i.  326,  ii.  62 ;  Galena,  i. 
248;  ii.  21,  44,  62 ;  Hartford,  i.  278  ;  ii. 
51;  Ironsides,  i.  248;  ii  21;  Jamestown, 
i.  296 ;  Kalamazoo,  ii.  91  ;  Keokuk,  ii. 
62 ;  Lehigh,  ii.  6  ;  Madawaska  (^Ten- 
nessee) ii  44,  189,  190  ;  Manhattan,  ii. 
60;  Miantonomoh,  ii.  72,  78,  79.  80,  91, 
106 ;  Minnesota,  i.  296  ;  ii.  98 ;  Mississip- 
pi, i  243  ;  Missouri,  i.  243  ;  Monadnock, 
ii  72,  91,  185  ;  Montauk,  ii  6,  58,  60, 
72;  Xantucket,  ii.  19,  328;  Nashville, 
ii.  99 ;  Osage,  ii  21 ;  Patapsco,  ii.  6, 
60;  Penguin,  ii.  186;  Sachem,  i  279; 
Sangamon,  ii.  6  ;  San  Jacinto,  i.  163, 
178;  Saranac,  i.  163,  178;  Susque- 
hanna, i.  178 ;  Tecumseh,  ii.  51 ;  Tona- 
wanda,  ii.  72;  Tuxis,  ii.  29,  30  ;  Wam- 
panoag,  ii  187 ;  Weehawken,  ii.  19,  48, 
59,  61,  62,  66,  67 ;  Winnebago,  ii.  51 ; 
Torktown,  i.  296 

Navy,  United  States,  officers  mentioned : 
Ammen,  D.,  ii  171;  Braine,  David  L., 
ii.  326,  327,328;  Campbell,  Albert  B., 
i  280;  Craven,  Tunis  A.,  ii  52;  Dahl- 
gren,  John  A.,  i  2S9,  296,  299;  ii  28, 
47,  49,  136,  137  ;  Davis,  Charles  H.,  i. 
246,  250  ;  ii.  02 ;  Drayton,  Percival,  ii 
69,  74,  93  ;  Dupont,  S.  F.,  i  163;  ii.  47, 
59,  60,  64,  65 ;  Erben,  Henry,  ii.  30 ; 
Farragut,  D.  G.,  i.  278 ;  u.  44,  53,  118 ; 
Fiske,  Bradley  A.,  ii  152  ;  Folger,  Will- 
iam N.,  ii.  135 ;  Goldsborough,  L.  M.,  i. 
298  ;  Greene,  S.  D.,  i.  279,  280,  281,  282, 
286,  290;  iL  10;  Gregory,  P.  H.,  u.  26, 
28,  29,  41,  188;  Hands,  R.  W.,  i  280; 
Henderson,  Alexander,  ii.  33 ;  Himter, 
W.  lU,  i  107  ;  Isherwood,  B.  F.,  i  242  ; 
ii.  13,  72.  73,  187,  1S8,  189;Jaque8, 
William  H.,  ii.  170;  Jeffers,  W.  N., 
ii.  147,  157,  160,  161,  164,  167,  172; 
Jones,  Paul,  ii  118;  Keeler,  W.  F.,  i 
280  ;  King,  J.  W.,  ii.  43  ;  Lee,  S.  P.,  ii. 
28  ;  Lenthal,  John,  ii.  40  ;  Ligne,  Daniel 
C,  i  279  ;  Luce,  S.  B.,  i  243,  289 ; 
Marston,  John,  i  279;  Miller,  J.  W.,  i 
139;  Newton,  Isaac,  i.  261,  279,  280, 
286,  287,  -^90,  299  ;  ii.  94  ;  Parker,  Fox- 
haUA.,  ii  51;  Perry,  M.  C,  i  243; 
Paulding,  Hiram,  i  240,  250,  253,  279  ; 
ii.  14 ;  Pook,  S.  H. ,  i.  248 ;  Porter,  D.  D., 
u.  58,  63,  157,  167  ;  Rhind,  A.  C,  ii 
62;  Rodger  s  John,  ii.  11,  17,  44,  61, 
66,67,70,  144;  Sands,  J.  R.,  i  190; 
Sicard,  .Montgomery,  ii.  167,  168; 
SLmpson,  Edward,  ii.  146,  170  ;  Smith, 


352 


INDEX. 


Joseph,  L  196,  246,  250,  251,  253,  264, 
•J71,  '2TS,  274  ;  iL  1,  2,  3,  5,  7,  43.  94 ; 
Smith,  Joseph  B.,  L  271  ;  Soley,  J.  Rus- 
sel,  i.  276 ;  ii.  45 ;  Stimers,  Alban  C. , 
L  256,  279,  2S0.  381,  282,  2S3,  387.  290, 
295,  296.  2**8 ;  ii.  8.  23,  26.  27,  29.  30, 
33,  45,  65.  69 :  Stodder,  L.  N..  L  279, 
2S0  ;  Sunstram.  X.  T..  i.  280  ;  Wise,  H. 
A.,  u.  140;  Wood,  W.  W.  W.,  ii.  28; 
Worden,  John  L.,  i.  238,  2-55,  279,  280, 
282,  283,  286,  290,  295,  297,  299;  IL  ' 
58,  70  ; 

Naw  Yards,  U.  S.,  mentioned,  L  203; 
ii"l34,  139  I 

Neighbors  in  Beach  Street,  agreements 
with,  ii.  :^06,  307 

Neutrality  laws  and  Spanish  gun-boats, 
ii  129.  130  i 

New  Orleans,  capture  of,  planned  by 
Captain  Fox,  L  278 

Newspapers,  contributions  to.  i.  48,  191, 
215  ;  ii.  157,  185,  277.  278,  293,  2^,  298, 
317 

Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  and  Ericsson  com- 
pared, i.  191 ;  study  of  his  works,  i. 
223  ;  his  scientific  theories  defended, 
iL  213,  279,  £82,  2S3 

New  York  Central  Railroad  uses  caloric 
engine,  i.  203 

New  York  Harbor,  plans  for  defending. 
1.  297;  ii  179 

New  York  Legislature  votes  thanks  for 
Monitor,  i.  294 

Nineteenth  century,  mechanical  changes  , 
in,  ii  257  j 

Nordmark.    Olof  Ericsson's  home,    de-  | 
scribed,  i  1 

Norfolk,    proposition    to    capture    with  , 
Monitor,  i  2t«S 

Norrland,  midnight  light  of,  ii  239  i 

Norse  rovers,  inheritance  from,  i  38 

Northbrook,  Lord,  loses  a  son  on  H.  M.  ' 
S.  Captain,  L  111 

Northern  lights,  sonnet  to,  i.  32,  2:i>0  | 

Norwegian  monitors,  ii.  76  ! 

Novelty,  canal  boat,  i  96  i 

SovtUy,  locomotive,  preserved  in  British  ' 
Patent  Office,  i  103  ; 

Novelty  Iron  Works.  N.  Y'.,  i  259 

Nyar  Daglijt  Allehandra,  ii.  215 

Obstruction  remover,  or  "boot-jack," 

ii.  +8,  49,  50 
Ocean,  neutralization  of,  proposed,  ii  88, 

14-8 
Odd  Fellow  membership,  ii.  324 
Odhner  family,  ii.  22:3.  224.  228,  333,  335 
Odin,  colonizes  Scandinavia,  i.  7 
Offence  and  defence,  factors  of,  in  war,  i. 

56  1 

Office,  ignorant  conceit  of.  i  25  j 

Official  inertia  and  prejudice,  i  4S  ;  ridi-  ( 
cule  of  Ericsson,  i.  lo6  (see  Naval  Offi- 
cers) I 
Ogden.     Francis   B.,    associations    with 
Ericsson,  i   78,  91,   104,  144,  152;  his  , 
opinion  of  Stockton,  i  151-153                J 


Olsson,  Jonas,  watch  presented  to,  ii  304 
Omniscience  accepted,  but  not  omnipo- 
tence, ii  249 
Ong.  Jesse,  a  claimant  for  invention  of 

the  screw,  i  167 
Opdyke,  Mayor,  asks  plans  for  defence  of 

NewYort  i-  297;  ii  179 
Orders  and  decorations  received,  i  183, 

184,  221 ;  ii  132,  133,  197,  198 
Ordnance,  advanced  view  concerning,  ii. 

136-141  ;  officers  of,  fear  heavy  guns,  ii. 

137,  28:3,   299 ;  present  and  piast  of,  ii. 

149  ;  use  of,  by  Confederates,  ii.  30  (see 

Guns) 
Ordnance  sense,  lack  of,  in  J/bnWor  fight, 

i  385 
Oregon,  boundarv  difficulties  of,  1852,  i 

153 
Oregon  gun.   the,    i    12:5,    130,    131;    ii 

134 
Originality  of  Ericsson's  work,  ii  336 
Ostergothiand  Fair  awards  prize  to  ca- 
loric engine,  i.  &)3 
Overhang  of  Monitor,  i.  263,  264.  368 ;  ii 

8,  10,  29,  5.5,  56,  70,  71.  93 
Overruling   EIricsson's  plans,  results  of, 

i23-33 
Owen's.  Samuel,  screw,  i  167 
Osyhydrogen  blow-pipe,  i.  210,  217 

Pacific  Railroad  solves  Indian  ques- 
tion, ii.  257 

Paixhan.  General  H.  J. ,  invents  sheU-fix- 
ing.  i  343 

Pakington,  Sir  John,  ii  104 

Palmerston,  Lord,  ii.  87 

Paraguayan  war,  use  of  torpedoes  in,  ii. 
151 

Paris  Exhibition,  commissioner  ship  of- 
fered Ericsson,  ii  190  ;  repwrt  on  mon- 
itors, i.  W 

Parke.  Baron,  renews  screw  patent,  i.  172 

Parrott,  Robert  C,  testimony  to  Elrics- 
son's  priority  on  hooped  guns,  ii  130 

Patents  and  patent  fees,  i.  39.  40,  68,  70, 
71,  72,  76,  78.  SO,  81,  87,  88,  91,  92,  96, 
97,  98,  99.  145,  146,  147,  156,  157,  159. 
167,  168,  169,  170,  171,  176,  177,  182, 
183,  188,  200,  201,  202,  206,  207,  210, 
214,  220;  ii  163,  241,  274;  neglect  of, 
ii  261 

Patent  fees  and  professional  services, 
distinction  between,  i  145,  146 

Patent  Office  certifies  to  originality  of 
screw,  i  168  ;  British  Patent  Office 
also  gives  credit  for  screw,  i  102  ;  asks 
account  of  inventions,  ii  80 ;  has  por- 
trait by  Elliott,  ii.  240 

Patent  Office,  Washington,  burned,  1.  168 

Patents,  refusal  to  give  opinion  concern- 
ing, ii.  240 

Patent  right*  in  Monitor,  ii.  94 

Patriotism  and  love  of  fatherland,  i  276  ; 
ii  19.  22.  12».\  124.  227.  '228 

Peace  contributions,  ii.  88 

Peace,  demoralizing  influence  of,  on  Navy, 
i  376 


INDEX. 


353 


Peacemaker  gun,  the,  i.  124,  130.  140,  206; 
bursting  of,  i.  125-128,  140;  letter  con- 
cerning, i.  141. 

Peirce,  Professor  Benjamin,  opposes 
granting  Rumford  prize,  i.  219 

Peninsular  &  Oriental  Co.  and  Monitor 
ventilation,  ii.  105 

Penn,  John,  engine-builder,  ii.  105 

Pentz,  Major,  i.  29 

Perkins,  Thomas  H.,  i.  158 

Perpetual  motion,  opinion  of,  i.  71 

Peruvian  Government  wishes  monitors, 
ii.  75;   and  destroyers,  ii.  172 

Petition  to  Congress  concerning  the 
Princeton,  i.  145 

Philadelphia  Exposition,  opinion  of,  ii.  196 

Philosophy,  discussions  of,  i.  223 

Phcenix  Foundry  casts  Princeton  gun,  i. 
141 

Physical  principles,  denial  of,  by  sailors, 
ii.  63 

Physics,  solar,  study  of,  ii.  277-301 

Pickering,  Charles,  discusses  grant  of 
Rumford  prize,  i.  219 

Pilot-house  of  Monitor,  i.  262-263,  282 

Pirating  his  inventions,  ii.  225 

Piranesi,  dream  of,  ii.  338 

Pitt,  Sir  William,  ii.  151 

Plans,  official  interference  with,  1.  236 

Platen,  Count  Von,  i.  12,  15,  19,  21,  22, 
24;   ii.  156 

Piatt,  Senator,  proposes  remuneration  for 
Monitor,  i.  96 

Playfair,  Sir  Lyon,  ii.  182 

Plunging  fire,  effect  upon  monitors,  ii.  45 

Poetry  by  Ericsson,  i.  32,  230 

Pohl  teaches  Ericsson  architectural  draw- 
ing, i.  15 

Polheim  commences  Gota  Canal,  i.  12,  17 

Political  opinions,  i.  181,  228;  naval 
contracts  affected  by,  ii.  25,  26 

Pollard's  "Secret  History  of  the  Confed- 
eracy," i.  301 

Portraits  of  Ericsson,  ii.  228 

Port  Royal  saved  by  Monitor,  i.  288 

Port  stopper  of  Monitor  turret,  ii.  56,  57 

Pouillet,  C.  G.  M.,  ii.  293,  294,  296 

Powder  charge,  present  and  past,  weight 
of,  ii.  149 

Practical  men  rs.  party  intrigues,  ii.  81 

Price  of  Monitor,  and  profits  on,  i.  269 

Prices,  advances  of,  on  contract  work  dur- 
ing Civil  War,  ii.  19 

Prince  de  Joinville's  opinion  of  monitors 
and  battle-ships,  ii.  98 

Poverty,  dread  of,  ii.  222 

Princeton,  the  United  States  steamer,  i. 
131,  140,  141,  142,  143, 146, 147,  155. 156. 
234;  ii.  38.  145.  169.  185.  206.  258;  ap- 
plication of  screw  to.  i.  166;  claim  for 
^engineering  services  on.  i.  142.  143,  147, 
149,  160,  178,  179,  250;  confounds  an- 
tiquated dogmas,  i.  137;  demonstration 
of  efficiency  of  screw  dates  from,  i. 
170;  correspondence  concerninsr,  i.  119- 
123:  described  by  J.  Q.  Adams  and 
Stockton,   i.    125,    129;    engines  of,  L 

Vol.  11.-23 


119,  132,  226;  exhibited  at  Washing- 
ton, i.  140;  explosion  on,  i.  125-128,140- 
141;  first  example  of  its  type,  i.  151;  first 
monitor,  i.  139;  foreign  admiration  of, 
i.  137;  foundation  of  steam  navies,  i. 
149;  praised  by  American  Institute,  j. 
133-134;  races  with  steamer  Great  West- 
ern, i.  135;  sensation  produced  by,  i. 
133;  Senator  Mallory's  speech  concern- 
ing, i.  148-149;  Stockton's  report  on,  i. 
126,  129,  143-146 

Priority  in  monitor  idea,  claim  to,  ii.  114- 
117  (see  also  Coles,  Cowper) 

Privy  Council,  petition  to,  i.  96 

Procrastination  of  Naval  Bureaux,  ii.  36 

Proctor  on  lunar  cold,  ii.  296 

Projectiles,  present  and  past,  ii.  134,  149 

Propeller,  early  experiments  with,  i.  87; 
first  introduced  on  Northern  Lakes,  i. 
152;  success  from  start,  i.  155;  ease  of 
fouling  by  obstructions,  ii.  49,  124  (see 
Screw) 

Prophecy  of  Lame  Eric,  i.  6 

Prosperity,  i.  188  (see  Financial) 

Providence,  divine,  Ericsson's  belief  in,  i. 
247 

Providential  teaching  in  monitor  experi- 
ence, i.  276;   ii.  4 

Public  opinion  misled  concerning  Erics- 
son, i.  137 

Pumping  engines,  i.  39,  181,  182 

Pyrometer,  i.  184-185;  ii.  288 

Quarterly  Journal  of  Science,  The,  ii.  284 
Quartermaster's       Department,       Ignited 

States  Army,  work  done  for,  i.  180 
Queen's  Privy  Council,  argument  before 

the,  i.  171 

Radiant  heat,  law  governing  transmis- 
sion of,  ii.  282,  283 

Rafts,  observation  of,  applied  to  Moni- 
tor, i.  233,  262;  ii.  77,  91;  for  destroy- 
ing harbor  obstructions,  ii.  48-50 

Railways,  early  distrust  of,  i.  50,  63; 
modest  expectations  concerning,  i.  50, 
51;  Swedish,  ii.  208,  traffic  on,  1841 
and  1889,  i.  65 

Rainhill  trial  of  first  locomotives,  i.  53- 
66,  79,  85,  154;    ii.  247,  323 

Ram,  steam,  inefficiency  of,  ii.  10,  171 

Rankin,  Joule,  Napier,  Regnault,  Bar- 
nard, Norton,  i.  213 

Range,  short,  in  naval  warfare,  ii.  176 

RasI,  Professor,  teaches  Ericsson  chemis- 
try, i.  18 

Rat-trap  invented,  ii.  306 

Rawlins,  John  A.,  Secretary  of  War,  ii.  130 

R.  B.  Forbes  tug-boat,  the,  i.  163 

Reed,  Sir  E.  J.,  i.  167;  and  the  monitors, 
ii.  81,  82,  84,  91,  105,  106,  108  (see 
Bourne) 

Regenerative  principle  in  caloric  engine, 
i.  72,  76,  84,  185.  190.  195.  197.  199, 
200,  206;  belief  of  Faraday  and  others 
in,  208,  210;  Siemens  application  of, 
i.  207,  208,  209;  ii,  266 


354 


INDEX. 


Regnault  and  Joule's  tables  corrected,  i. 
211 

Rejoicings  at  success  of  Monitor,  1.  280 

Relations  of  Ericsson  to  his  wife,  ii.  219 

Relics  of  Ericsson,  ii.  228 

Religious  belief,  i.  247;  ii.  219,  224,  249- 
257 

Repeating  rifle  recommended  to  Lincoln, 
ii.  34 

Reporters,  opinion  of,  ii.  235 

Ressel  claims  the  invention  of  the  screw, 
i.  97 

Revenue  marine  service,  work  in  connec- 
tion with,  i.  156,  158,  166,  180,  183 

Revue  des  Deux  Mondes  quoted,  ii.  85 

Richmond,  excitement  at,  when  Merri- 
mac  was  destroyed,  i.  301;  iron-clad, 
demonstrations  against,  i.  44 

Rideau  Canal,  first  propeller  on,  i.  109 

Riksdag,  Swedish,  votes  thanks,  ii.  196, 
204 

Risley,  Samuel,  describes  Ericsson,  i. 
112 

Rivals  and  imitators,  ii.  104-119 

Rivers  affect  rotation  of  earth,  ii.  263, 
264,  265 

Robert  F.  Stockton,  the,  i.  87,  94,  95,  101, 
102,  103,  155 

Roberts.  Marshall  O.,  i.  160,  162 

Robeson,  Secretary  George  M.,  ii.  100, 
101,  161 

Robespierre's  death  saves  Admiral  Du- 
pont's  grandfather,  ii.  64 

Robinson,  George  H.,  transfers  Erics- 
son's remains,  ii.  329,  335 

Rocket,  Stephenson's  locomotive,  i.  54,  55, 
59,  60,  61,  64,  103 

Rodman  gun,  the,  i.  130;    ii.  140 

Roe,  Captain,  runs  the  Iron  Witch,  i. 
160 

Rolf  the  Ganger,  i.  6 

Roll  of  monitors  and  broadsides  com- 
pared, ii.  78,  79,  96,  97,  107 

Rosen  Von,  Count,  i.  18,  39,  99,  138,  152, 
172,  173;    ii.  89,  333 

Ross,  Sir  John,  quarrel  with,  i.  41-43 

Rotary  engines,  i.  68,  69,  81 

Rowland,  T.  F.,  i.  251,  258.  259 

Royal  personages  mentioned:  Alfonso, 
King  of  Spain,  ii.  133;  Austrian  Em- 
peror, ii.  18;  Charles  XII.  (of  Sweden), 
i.  11;  ii.  227;  Charles  XV.  (of  Sweden), 
i.  37;  ii.  76,  196;  Comte  de  Paris,  i. 
296;  Constantine,  ii.  76;  Crown  Prince 
of  Sweden,  i.  37;  Czar  of  Russia,  ii.  14, 
76,  257,  309;  Duke  of  Edinburgh,  ii. 
84;  Napoleon  I.,  i.  24,  243;  ii.  258; 
Oscar  II.  (of  Sweden),  i.  195,  273;  ii. 
172;  Prince  Albert,  i.  184;  ii.  107,  108; 
Prince  of  Wales,  ii.  84,  106;  Sultan  of 
Turkey,  ii.  14;  Victoria,  Queen  of 
England,  ii.  14 

Rudder,  the  balanced,  i.  37,  58,  174 

Rumford  prize,  history  of,  i.  217 

Ruskin  on  the  line  of  battle  ship,  ii.  86 

Russell,  J.  Scott,  1.  63,  170,  264;  ii.  15, 
118 


Russia,  aggressions  of,  ii.  84,  121;  moni- 
tors and  land  turrets,  ii.  76,  87,  178; 
Swedish  hostility  to,  i.  8,  172,  221,  240, 
241,  244.  245 

Rutherford's  lunar  photographs,  ii,  297 

Sailor  conservatism,  ii.  63,  86 

Sandy  Hook  experiments,  i.  154,  274;  ii. 
134,  162 

Salt,  Ericsson  and  Siemens's  attempts  to 
manufacture,  i.  70 

Salt  water  for  .sea-board  cities,'  i.  162 

Sargent,  Epes,  i.  113,  291 

Sargent,  John  O.,  i.  103,  104,  111,  112,  113, 
147,  160,  186,  187,  195,  196,  202,  220. 
224,  237,  291;    ii.  262 

Savannah,  first  ocean  steamer  visits 
Stockholm,  i.  40 

Saw-mill  and  pump,  the  first  invented,  i. 
19,  20 

St.  Aubin  opposes  torpedoes,  ii.  152 

St.  John's  Park.  New  York,  ii.  303 

St.  Vincent,  Count,  censures  Pitt,  ii.  151 

Scandinavia  desires  Ericsson's  services, 
ii.  210 

Scandinavian  origin  of  British  civiliza- 
tion, i.  1;  spirit  strong  in  Vermland, 
i.  6 

Scandinavian  politics,  opinions  on,  ii.  243 

Schleswig-Holstein  war,  ii.  223 

Schley,  W.  S.,  remov'es  Ericsson's  re- 
mains, ii.  326,  329 

Schuyler,  Robert,  i.  147 

Scientific  American,  The,  i.  191;   ii.  307 

Scientific  apparatus,  ii.  296;  articles  in 
Engineering  and  Nature,  u.  277,  278; 
investigations  and  theories,  Li.  262-289; 
opponents,  ii.  232 

Scott,  General  Winfield,  i.  259 

Scottish  ancestors,  i.  4 

Scourge,  screw  applied  to,  i.  166 

Screw,  advantages  of,  ii.  154;  Admiralty 
hostility  to,  i.  89,  90,  96,  138,  139,  164; 
ii.  176;  adoption  of,  recommended  by 
Brunei,  i.  163;  affidavit  as  to  priority, 
i.  98;  applied  to  commercial  vessels,  i. 
96,  155-166;  ii.  12,  183;  to  war  vessels, 
i.  117-139;  authorities  giving  priority 
to  Ericsson,  i.  170;  claimants  to,  i.  171, 
172;  cost  of  introducing,  i.  171;  early 
studies  in,  i.  98;  effect  on  steam  navi- 
gation, i.  174;  first  used  in  China,  i. 
173;  obstinate  depreciation  of,  ii.  302; 
patent  charges  on,  i.  169;  successful 
application  of  twin  screws,  ii.  132 

Scribner's  Magazine,  article  in,  on  Erics- 
son, ii.  245 

Sea-going  properties  of  monitors,  ii.  78, 
81,  91,  93  (see  Monitor) 

Sebastopol,  naval  attack  upon,  i.  244,  275 

Secchi,  Father,  controversy  with,  ii.  214, 
282,  286,  289 

Second  Street  Cemetery,  ii.  328 

Secretary  of  Navy,  Ericsson  as,  i.  276 

Seidler.  Charles,  i.  39,  82 

Sel  fridge  Board  commends  Destroyer, 
U.  167 


INDEX. 


355 


Semi-rotary  engines,  i.  80,  81 

Sermon  on  Mount,  Ericsson's  creed,  ii.  253 

Seventh  N.  Y.  Regiment  on  caloric  ship, 

i.  197 
Seward,  W.  H.,  i.  249,  288;   ii.  5,  75 
Sewing  machines,  caloric  engine  applied 

to,  i.  204 
Sharp-shooters,  Confederate,  assault  U.  S. 

vessels,  ii.  20 
Shell  firing,  destructive  effect  of,  i.  244, 

275 
Sheriff    sells    Ericsson    family    furniture, 

i.  3 
Ships  of  the  line,  ii.  86,  87 
Ships  of  war,  past  and  future  of,  ii.  108 
Shoeburyness  trial  of  15-inch  gun,  ii.  138 
Shots  fired  by  Monitor  against  Merrimac, 
i.  286;    rolled  out  of  guns  of  broadside 
vessels,  ii.  79;  striking  monitors  during 
war,  ii.  60,  61 
Siemens,  Si.  W.,  i.  207-210;   ii.  208 
Sight-holes  of  the  Monitor,  i.  282 
Simplicity,  value  of,  in  war,  ii.  184 
Sinope,  Turkish  fleet  destroyed  at,  i.  244 
Slavery,  hostility  to,  i.  241;  Europe  favors 
it,  ii.  87;   destroyed  by  Monitor,  ii.  219 
Smaller  states,  defence  of.  ii.  76 
Smith,   Francis  P.,  and  his  screw,  i.  88, 

171 
Smith,  Kirby,  surrender  of,  ii.  43 
Smith,  Sir  Sidney,  ii.  151 
Smoke-jack   illustrates  hot-air  principle, 

i.  71;   compounded  with  screw,  i.  174 
Smoke-stack,  discarded,  i.  132 
Societies  honoring  Ericsson,  ii.  197,  198, 

199,  200 
Societies  mentioned,  American  Academy 
of  Arts  and  Sciences,  i.  218;  ii.  200, 
260,  299;  American  Institute,  i.  133, 
134,  142;  Art  Society  of  London,  ii. 
240;  Franklin  Institute,  i.  136;  ii.  197; 
Institution  of  Civil  Engineers,  London, 
i.  34,  212;  ii.  107;  Italian  Royal  Acad- 
emy of  Sciences,  ii.  279;  Mechanics 
Institute,  i.  106;  National  Academy  of 
Sciences,  ii.  199,  277;  Naval  Archi- 
tects' Institute,  ii.  183;  Swedish  Royal 
Academy  of  Sciences,  i.  184;  Swedish 
RoyaL  Military  Academy  of  Sciences,  i. 
184;  Royal  Society,  London,  ii.  277, 
284. 
Solar  engine,  ii.  320  (see  Sun  Motors) 
Solar  physics,  study  of,  ii.  214,  222,  262- 

289,  301  (see  Sun  and  Moon) 
Soldier,   the   professional,   a  peace-advo- 
cate, ii.  150 
Somerset,  Duke  of,  ii.  6 
Sounding  instrument,  i.  76;   ii.  74 
South  America,  solar  engine  used  in,  ii. 

276 
Spain,  threat  of  war  with,  ii.   100,   101; 

gun-boats  built  for,  ii.  128-133 
Spanish,     Ericsson's     knowledge     of,    ii. 

224 
Speeches  of  Ericsson,  i.  194,  295 
Spirit  of  our  times  too  utilitarian,  ii.  195 
Stanley,  Dean,  ii.  337 


State  Department  arranges  for  return  of 
Ericsson's  remains,  ii.  325 

Stadig,  Magnus,  ii.  336 

Stability  of  Monitor,  i.  267;  ii.  68  (see 
Monitor) 

Stage  coaches,  speed  of,  i.  49 

Stanley,  H.  M.,  ii.  270 

Stanton,  E.  M.,  i.  288,  300 

Steam,  applications  of,  i.  39,  68,  85;  dy- 
namic energy  fully  utilized,  ii.  192 
improvement  in  its  application,  ii.  182 
influences  on  naval  character,  ii.  89 
pressures  in  Watt's  time,  i.  76;  supe- 
rior to  hot  air,  i.  98;  used  expansively, 
i.  161;    ii.  190,  191 

Steam-blast,  early  use  of,  i.  55 

Steam-engine,  efforts  to  supersede,  i.  40, 
71;  demoralizing  influence  of,  i.  215; 
statistics  of,  i.  211;  to  be  superseded, 
i.  201,  207 

Steam  fire-engine,  i.  44-48;  opposition 
to,  i.  47,  106,  107 

Steam  fleet  of  Great  Britain  in  1826,  i.  40 

Steam  machinery,  rapid  improvement  of, 
ii.  182 

Steamer,  naval,  offer  to  build  one  in  eight 
months  ridiculed,  i.  237 

Steamer,  paddle-wheel,  not  able  to  com- 
pete with  sails,  i.  98 

Steam-pumps  invented,  i.  68 

Steam-wheel  invention,  i.  68 

Stedman,  E.  C,  quoted,  ii.  337 

Steel  for  guns,  ii.  141 

Steering  gear,  importance  of  protecting, 
ii.  11 

Stellar  heat  and  radiation,  ii.  206 

Stephenson,  George  L.,  gains  prize  in 
Rainhill  contest,  i.  40,  52-58;  ii.  208; 
Ericsson's  opinion  of,  i.  58,  154 

Sterling's  hot-air  engine,  i.  72,  213 

Stevens  family,  i.  151-154,  244;  ii.  116, 
208 

Stewed  engine-wheels  as  an  article  of 
diet,  i.  52 

Stockholm  museum,  ii.  308,  309 

Stockton,  Robert  F.,i.  93-95,  131;  ii.  116; 
acknowledges  Princeton  claim,  i.  206; 
as  a  duellist,  i.  152;  correspondence 
with,  concerning  claim,  119-121;  Erics- 
son's opinion,  i.  151;  first  acquaintance, 
i.  92,  144;  injured  by  Peacemaker  ex- 
plosion, i.  126-128;  introduces  screw 
to  war  vessels,  i.  93,  103,  105,  117,  144; 
misunderstanding  with,  and  hostility  to 
Ericsson,  i.  107-109,  128,  130,  140-145, 
152,  157,  160;  praises  Ericsson,  i.  118; 
takes  all  credit  for  Princeton,  i.  120,  148 

Stockton,  R.  F.,  first  screw  tug,  i.  94,  95, 
99,  100,  101,  102,  103,  109;  ii.  185; 
engines    of,  i.  133 

Story,  Judge,  on  enforcing  claims  against 
government,  i.  150 

Stoughton,  E.  W.,  i.  199,  206,  220,  313; 
ii.  243;  buys  interest  in  caloric  patents, 
i.  188 

Stove,  a  single  one  might  heat  New  York 
City,  ii.  293 


356 


INDEX. 


Strength  of  materials,  study  of,  i.  134 

Stridsbon,  sung  at  Ericsson's  funeral,  ii. 
328 

Sub-aquatic  attack,  ii.  237.  240;  ii.  88, 
116,  148,  154.  155.  163,  173,  177 

Submerged  propellers,  early  experiments 
with,  i.  87,  98 

Submerged  vessel-naval,  conditions  of, 
i.  261;  stability  of,  ii.  71  (see  Mon- 
Uor) 

Summer  recreations,  ii.  309.  310 

Sumner.  Charles,  senator,  i.  130 

Sumptuary  laws,  Ericsson's  opinion  of,  ii. 
311 

Sumter,  Fort,  attack  on,  i.  234;   ii.  42.  47 

Sun,  the,  depth  of  its  atmosphere,  ii.  283; 
circulatory  movement  in.  ii.  287;  dy- 
namic energy,  ii.  281;  effort  to  store  up 
its  power,  ii.  272;  measurement  of  its 
light,  ii.  287;  rays  retarded  by  our  at- 
mosphere, ii.  286;  radiation  from.  ii. 
263.  266.  287.  292-296;  spots  on.  u.  281 ; 
temperature  of,  ii.  262.  266,  269,  280, 
285,  289,  290-294;  yearly  shrinkage  of, 
ii.  280 

Sun  motors  invented,  ii.  221,  265.  267, 
268.  269.  270.  272,  273,  277.  320;  nearer 
perfect  than  steam-engine,  ii.  276. 

Superheating,  condensing  steam-engine, 
i.  76 

Superheating  steam,  early  use  of.  i.  183 

Surface  condensation,  i.  210,  211,  227;  ii. 
22;  first  applied  to  steam-engine,  i.  41, 
183;  its  value,  i.  42,  211;  novel  use  of, 
ii.  129 

Surgeon-General's  report  on  healthful- 
ness  of  monitors,  ii.  65 

Swedenborg  commences  Gota  Canal,  i.  11; 
quoted,  ii.  157 

Sweden,  defence  of,  i.  240;  ii.  213;  de- 
scribed, i.  2,  5.  6,  21.  22.  28;  famine  in, 
ii.  228,  229;  future  of,  ii.  121;  indus- 
trial exposition  in.  ii.  194;  jealousy  of 
functionaries  of.  ii.  124;  letters  of  King 
Oscar,  ii.  195,  189,  273;  land  turrets 
for,  ii.  178;  love  of  and  gifts  to,  ii.  76. 
120.  121,  122,  125,  127;  lying  allega- 
tions of  papers  of,  ii.  126:  monitors 
for,  ii.  76.  120.  121.  185:  poveny  of,  i. 
21;  pride  of,  in  Ericsson,  ii.  124.  291; 
Riksdag  of,  votes  him  thanks,  ii.  196; 
threatened    by  Russia,  i.  240;   ii.  121 

Sweden,  intention  to  return  to.  ii.  320 

Swedes,  as  soldiers,  ii.  121;  built  and 
fought  the  Monitor,  ii.  289;  humane 
customs  of,  ii.  229;  love  of  strong 
drink,  i.  85;  their  applications  for 
charity,  ii.  231.  232 

Swedish  books  never  read.  i.  224;  letters 
translated  from.  ii.  250;  peasantry  de- 
scribed, i.  3:  ii.  122;  drinkine  habits, 
ii.  311;  Government  asks  for  Ericsson's 
remains,  ii.  326;  railways  built  by  Nils 
Ericsson,  ii.  208,  209 

Swinton's  account  of  Monitor,  i.  301 

Symonds,  Sir  William,  early  objections 
to  screw,  i,  90,  164,  170 


T.\LE.N-T  as  distinguished  from  genius,  iL 

336 
Target  exhibitions,  uselessness  of,  ii.  141 
Taylor,  President,  opinion  of,  i.  181 
Taylor.  Samuel  W.,  u.  230,  245,  315,  333- 

336 
Tegnier,  iioet  of  Vermland.  ii.  319 
Telegraph.  Atlantic,  invests  in,  i.  310 
Telford.  Thomas,  influence  on  Ericsson's 

career,  i.  12 
Tellier's  solar  motor,  ii.  268 
Temperature  of  the  sun  (see  Sun) 
Temperance  habits,  i.  85;   ii.  330 
Temperatures,  artificial  methods  of  meas- 
uring, i.  185 
Tennyson,  Lord,  quoted,  iL  257 
Thanks,  legislative,  voted  to  Ericsson,  i. 

290,  294 
Thanksgiving,  observance  of,  i.  221 
Thaver,  John  E.,  invests  in  Iron  Witch, 

i.  160 
Theatre.  Ericsson's  interest  in,  i.  228 
Thermometer,  inaccuracies  of,  iL  290,  291, 

292 
Thesiger,  Sir  F.,  before  Privv  Council,  J. 

171 
Thierry's  cast-iron  guns,  ii.  136 
Thiers's  opposition  to  railroads,  i.  66 
Thomas,  W.  X.,  Jr..  transfers   Ericsson's 
remains  to  Swedish  Government,  ii.  330 
Thompson.    Benjamin.    Count    Rumford, 

L  217;    ii.  260,  261 
Thomson.  Sir  William.  L  76,  207 
Thule.  location  of.  i.  2 
Tidal  action,  studv  of.  ii.  264 
Timby.  T.  R.,  u.  il4.  115 
Times,  the  London,  on  monitors,  ii.  68, 
84,  85.  107.  113;  letter  to,  on  labor-sav- 
ing machines,  i.  215 
Toombs,  Robert,  ii.  117 
Toronto,     packet-ship,     towed     by     first 

screw  vessel,  i.  89.  99 
Torpedo  boats,  ii.  87,  106,  170;    unrelia- 
ble. iL  174.  175 
Torpedo  guard  devised,  ii.  174 
Torpedoes,  armor-clads  food  for.  ii.  154; 
cable,  ii.   156-162,  172;    Colt's,  ii.  155; 
effects  of.  ii.    151:    for  clearing  chan- 
nels, ii.  49:    for  war.  ii.  99.   124;    Ful- 
ton's, ii.  150;    locomotive,  ii.  153,  154, 
157,  164.  174;    professional  hostility  to, 
ii.  152;    sink  monitor  Tecumseh.  ii.  52; 
stationary,  ii.  102,  125.  171.  174;    Jef- 
fers's  (Commodore^  opinion  of.  ii.  160 
Tramways,  first  employment  of,  i.  50 
Torpedo  projectile  carrying  dynamite,  iL 

162 
Trafalgar,  guns  used  at.  ii.  149 
Trans-caucasian  railroad,  ii.  257 
Treadwell.    Professor   Daniel,   i.   218;    ii. 

260.  262 
Treasury  Department,  work  for,  i.  180, 182 
Tredegar  foundry,  armors  Merrimac.  i.  246 
Troy,  steamer,  beaten  by  Iron  Witch,  i.  160 
Tryggveson.  Hercules  of  the  North,  i.  25 
Tschirnhauser.  experiments  with  concave 
mirrors,  ii.  271 


INDEX. 


357 


Tubular  cable  torpedo,  ii.  156.  158,  160, 
161,  162 

Tufts,  Otis,  i.  163 

Turkish  Pacha  tries  a  fire-engine,  i.  47; 
losses  of  at  Navarino,  ii.  62;  use  of  tor- 
pedoes by,  ii.  151 

Turnpikes,  English,  amount  expended 
upon,  i.  49 

Turreted  vessels,  British,  ii.  95,  97,  105 

Turrets,  an  ancient  device,  ii.  114;  effect 
of  firing  guns  in,  ii.  265;  for  land  de- 
fence, ii.  178,  180;  reasons  for  adopting 
on  Monitor,  i.  263,  283;  single  and 
double,  ii.  12,  13 

Twenty-inch  gun,  ii.  4 

Tyler,  John,  President,  i.  127,  153 

Tyndall,  Professor  John,  i.  75,  208;  ii. 
280,  283,  291,  292 

UisrioN'  Club,  New  York,  Ericsson  as  a 
member  of,  i.  191;  ii.  302,  311 

Union,  the  American,  the  work  of  engi- 
neers, ii.  257 

United  States,  England's  foolish  treat- 
ment of,  ii.  87;  uncomplimentary  opin- 
ions concerning,  ii.  231,  232 

"Ure's  Dictionary"  approves  caloric  en- 
gine, i.  207 

Vandalia,  1.  108,  109,  110 

Vasa,  order  of,  i.  184,  221 

Venern  and  Vettern  Lakes,  i.  6,  10,  11 

Ventilation  of  Monitor,  i.  268;    ii.  65,  68, 

104  (see  Monitor) 
Verbal  agreements,  repudiated  by  Naval 

Department,  ii.  5 
Vermland,  Sweden,  i.   1-6;    ii.   225,   227, 

319,  330 
Vessels  of  war,  large,  disbelief  in,  ii.  180 
Vessels,  wooden,   used  during  Civil  War, 

u.  20 
Vesterland  poor,  contribution  to,  ii.  227 
Victory,  The,  Arctic  steamer,  engined  by 

Ericsson,  i.  41,  42,  43,  59.  138 
Vignoles,  C.  B.,  i.  53;   opinion  of  the  loco- 
motive Novelty,  i.  64;    partner  in  canal- 
boat  patent,  i.  78 
Villette's  experiments  with  concave  mir- 
rors, ii.  271 
Vincennes,  trial  of  armor-guns  at,  i.  275 
Virgiiiia's  crew  defend  land  batteries,  ii. 

44  (see  Merrimac) 
Virginius  captured  by  Tornado,  ii.  133 
Vis  inertia,  struggles  against,  ii.  85 
Volta,  The,  blown  up  by  Colt,  ii.  155 
Vortical  action  on  moon's  surface,  ii.  297, 

298 
Volvas,  or  Sibyls,  Norse  belief  in,  i.  7 

Wade,  Senator,  ii.  31 

Wallace,  William  H.,  executor,  ii.  335 

War  is  in  its  infancy,  ii.  148 

War,  Civil,  Ericsson's  great  part  in,  i. 
233;  pecuniary  embarrassments  result- 
ing from,  ii.  42;  waste  of  money  dur- 
ing, ii.  44;  when  it  ended  officially,  ii.  43 

War,  changes,  ii.  149:  future  of,  ii.  88. 
152;  how  to  discredit,  ii.  150;  influence 


of  professional  study  of,  ii.  150;  re- 
sults to  follow  improvement  in,  ii.  150; 
thrilling  incident  of,  ii.  51 

Warlike  appliances,  moral  results  of  im- 
provement in,  Li.  150 

Warner,  Charles  Dudley,  quoted,  ii.  114 

War-ships,  improvements  in,  ii.  117,  138 

Water,  apparatus  for  condensing,  i.  180 

Water  on  the  monitors,  ii.  299 

TT'a^er  Witch,  tug,  failure  of  attempt  to 
use  small  wheels  on,  i.  162,  166 

Water  on  the  moon  (see  Moon) 

Watson,  Egbert  P.,  i.  227;   ii.  191,  233 

Watt,  John,  steam-engine,  i.  50,  132,  173, 
185,  207;  compared  with  Ericsson,  i.  192 

Waves,  action  of,  upon  a  vessel,  ii.  79, 
93;    depth  of,  ii.  71 

Weak  states,  sympathy  with,  ii.  177 

Wedgewood's  erroneous  theories  cor- 
rected, i.  184 

Welding,  effect  of  on  guns,  ii.  135,  136, 
140 

Welles,  Gideon,  Secretary  of  Navy,  i. 
242,  245,  252,  253.  258,  271,  288;  ii.  9, 
24,  40,  100;  circular  concerning  gov- 
ernment work,  ii.  43;  confidence  in 
Eric.s.son,  ii.  28;  report  to  Congress 
concerning  Dictator,  ii.  41;  upon  moni- 
tors, ii.  100 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  refuses  to  travel  by 
rail,  i.  51. 

Wesleyan  University,  ii.  194,  197 

Westminster  Catechism,  ii.  3 

Wetmore,  Prosper  M.,  i.  295 

Wetmore,  W.  S.,  invests  in  Iron  Witch, 
i.  160 

Whig  National  Convention  of  1848,  i.  181 

Whitehead  torpedo,  ii.  154,  174 

Whitney,  William  C,  Secretary  of  Navy, 
letter  to.  ii.  162.  181 

White.  Richard  Grant,  opinion  of  caloric 
ship,  i.  191 

Wilcox  caloric  engine,  i.  213 

Wilkinson,  J.  J.  G.,  quoted,  i.  51 

Will  of  Ericsson,  ii.  333 

Winlock,  Joseph,  opposes  giving  Rum- 
ford  medal,  i.  218 

Winslow,  J.  G.,  i.  249,  251,  257.  269,  277, 
278;    ii.  1,  2,  40,  239 

Wire  system  in  caloric  engines,  i.  185, 
188,  199,  200  (see  Regenerator) 

Wires  yield  more  force  than  coal,  i.  201 

Women,  relations  to,  i.  32,  81,  230,  231 

Woodcroft,  Bennett,  i.  80,  96,  103,  170, 
171,  185 

Wooden  vessels  compared  to  Druidish 
images,  ii.  85 

Wool.  General,  i.  290-291,  296 

Woolwich  target,  experiments  at,  i.  244 

Worden,  John  L.  (Swedish  wordig — 
worthy),  i.  279-283.  297.  298.  299;  li.  327 

Worthington,  Henry  R.,  ii.  241 

Wvman  opposes  granting  Rumford  med- 
al, i.  218 

Yng.strom  family,  Olof  Ericsson  marries 
Brita  Sophia,  i.  4,  7 


i 


